The Dean’s widow was capricious and swayed by fluctuations of health. She was “up and down,” whatever that betokened. At one moment she “saw the sun,”—her poetical way of expressing that she began to feel pretty well,—and thought she had had enough of the “frivolous existence one leads in an hotel”; at another a fit of sneezing,—“was not the early morning sneeze but the real thing,”—a pang of rheumatism, or a touch of bronchitis, made her fear for the damp of Welsley. She would and she would not, and Rosamund could not induce her to come to a decision, and suffered agonies at the thought of being turned out of Little Cloisters. When Dion came back, of course, a flitting from Welsley would have to be faced, but to be driven away without that imperative reason would indeed be gall and wormwood. There were days when Rosamund felt unchristian towards Mrs. Dean, upon whom she had never looked, but with whom she had exchanged a great many cordial letters.
In August, under the influence of a “heavy cold, which seems the worse because of the heat,” Mrs. Browning had agreed to let Rosamund stay on for another month, September; and now Rosamund was anxiously awaiting a reply to her almost impassioned appeal for a six months’ extension of her lease. Canon Wilton was again in residence in the Precincts, and one afternoon he called at Little Cloisters, after the three o’clock service, to inquire what was the result of this appeal. Beatrice was staying with her sister for a few days, and when the Canon was shown in she was alone in the drawing-room, having just come up from the garden, where she had been playing with Robin, whose chirping high voice was audible, floating up from below.
“Is your sister busy?” asked the Canon, after greeting Beatrice.
Beatrice smiled faintly.
“She’s in her den. What do you think she is doing?”
The Canon looked hard at her, and he too smiled.
“Not writing again to Mrs. Browning?”
Beatrice nodded, and sat gently down on the window-seat.
“Begging and praying for an extension.”
“I’ve never seen any one so in love with a place as your sister is with Welsley.”