"Yes, and he says they want a few days of rest; but I say they are ill."
"But the doctor must know?"
"Perhaps," said Norton. "Perhaps he don't."
The people under the bank were forgotten soon, in the warm luxury of the drawing-room and the bright tea-table, and the comfort of sugared peaches. And then Matilda and Norton played chess all the evening, talking to Mrs. Laval at intervals. The tulip bed and the hyacinth bed were proposed, and approved; a trip to Poughkeepsie was arranged, to see Maria; and Norton told of Miss Redwood's doings in Lilac Lane. Mrs. Laval was much amused.
"And you two children have done that!" she said.
"You gave me the money for it, ma'am," said Matilda.
"It was yours after I had given it," said the lady. "I wonder how much good really now, all that will amount to? or whether it is just a flash in the pan? That is the question that always comes to me."
Matilda looked up from the chess men, wondering what she could mean.
"It is a real good to have the house cleaned; you would never doubt that, mamma, if you had seen it," Norton remarked.
"And it is a real good that the poor woman is ready to have Mr. Richmond come to see her now," said Matilda.