CHAPTER VIII.
t was not at all a bad thing to do, Florence thought, as she sat and considered the arrangement Mr. Fisher had so suddenly made in regard to the house in town and the cottage at Witley. The country would do the children good, and Aunt Anne would probably enjoy it. Of course the latter would consent to go with them. Indeed, she had clearly no other resource. Florence wondered if she would like it.
But Mrs. Baines was so full of news herself when she returned that she had no time to listen to any one else.
“My love,” she said, “I have passed a most important day.”
“Relate your adventures, Aunt Anne.” But at this request Mrs. Baines winked and spoke slowly.
“I had an engagement in the morning,” she began, and hesitated. “When I had fulfilled it,” she went on, “I thought it right, Florence, to go and call on Sir William Rammage. He has been ill, and I wanted to assure him of my sympathy. Besides, I felt that it was due to you—that it was an imperative duty on my part to ask him for an allowance, and that it was his duty to give it to me.”
“But, Aunt Anne——”