Mrs. Livesey would not have had so much opportunity for quiet talk, but that Ann's husband happened to be ailing, and required more attention than usual, and she had no daughter to see to home matters. So Margaret was her mother's head nurse, and whilst acting as such, she was called upon to bring a visitor to her bedside. He was one whom Margaret had seen several times after her father's death, for he acted as executor under the will of the relative through whom the "bit of money" had come to him.
It will be remembered that in the early days of Adam's acquaintance with Mrs. Allison, the widow told him about a legacy which fortunately her husband had been unable to spend, because he died almost immediately after coming into possession of it. Also that one-fourth of it, about three hundred pounds, would come to Margaret at her mother's death. The executor under the first will had been induced to act as such for the dying legatee, and had since held the principal sum of twelve hundred pounds in trust for the widow and her daughters. The money had been well invested by Mr. Collinge, and Mrs. Allison justly deemed herself very fortunate in having so kind a friend in this worthy and upright gentleman.
"Mr. Collinge is coming to see me," said the widow to Mrs. Livesey. "It is about a bit of business, but I don't want Ann to know, or you either. She'll know soon enough," added the invalid with a wan smile, "and you too, for that matter. Bad news always travels too fast, and good is sure to come at the right time. Mind, Margaret, if Ann is here, Mr. Collinge will call again; if not, he must see me. Wake me, if I'm asleep. Let me have a few minutes to speak to him on the quiet. Ann may hear he has been, and ask you what he said; but I shall take care you have nothing to tell but what the town-crier would be free to repeat."
Mr. Collinge came. Not alone, though, for his daughter, a sweet-faced young lady, was with him, and accompanied him to the bedside of the sick woman.
Of what passed between Mrs. Allison and her visitors Margaret was told nothing. They exchanged a few kindly words with herself, and made inquiries after her husband and family, then took leave.
After the departure of Mr. Collinge and his daughter, Margaret returned to her mother's room, and found her with a look of great satisfaction on her face.
"Yes, I'm feeling better," she said. "I've settled the one thing that troubled me, and made amends. I'm glad Ann kept out of the way at the right time; but you can tell her when she comes that I have had these visitors. It's all you can tell." And she laughed a little laugh of triumph, which made her hearer feel very uncomfortable, she knew not why.
When Ann, otherwise Mrs. Bradford, returned to her mother's house, Margaret told her about Mr. Collinge's call, as she had been requested to do.
An angry flush mounted to her elder sister's face as she heard this, and she asked sharply, "What did he come here for? Mr. Collinge only calls when there's business to be done. What could mother want with him, I should like to know?"
"That's more than I can tell you, for mother wanted to speak to the gentleman and his daughter by themselves; so I came downstairs. I wasn't likely to cross her by stopping, or poking my nose in, if I wasn't wanted!" retorted Margaret, with her usual plainness of speech.