Her volatile mind had flown elsewhere.
‘Mr. Jasper,’ she said, ‘have you ever been to a theatre?’
‘Yes.’
‘O, I should like it above everything else. I dream of it. We have Inchbald’s “British Theatre” in the library, and it is my dearest reading. Barbara likes a cookery book or a book on farming; I cannot abide them. Do you know what Mr. Coyshe said the other day when I was rattling on before him and papa? He said I had missed my vocation, and ought to have been on the stage. What do you think?’
‘I think a loving and merciful Providence has done best to put such a precious treasure here where it can best be preserved.’
‘I don’t agree with you at all,’ said Eve, standing up. ‘I think Mr. Coyshe showed great sense. Anyhow, I should like to see a theatre—O, above everything in the world! Papa thinks of Rome or the Holy Land; but I say—a theatre. I can’t help it; I think it, and must say it. Good-bye! I have things my sister left that I must attend to. I wish she were back. Oh, Mr. Jasper, do not you?’
‘Everyone will be pleased to welcome her home.’
‘Because I have let everything go to sixes and sevens, eh?’
‘For her own sake.’
‘Well, I do miss her dreadfully, do not you?’