There was a ring at the front door bell, and Clara went to see who was there. It was a runaway ring, but she took the opportunity of going upstairs to Madge.
‘She has a sister?’ said Baruch.
‘Yes, and I may just as well tell you about her now—leastways what I know—and I believe as I know pretty near everything about her. You’ll have to be told if they stay here. She was engaged to be married, and how it came about with a girl like that is a bit beyond me, anyhow, there’s a child, and the father’s a good sort by what I can make out, but she won’t have anything more to do with him.’
‘What do you mean by “a girl like that.”’
‘She isn’t one of them as goes wrong; she can talk German and reads books.’
‘Did he desert her?’
‘No, that’s just it. She loves me, although I say it, as if I was her mother, and yet I’m just as much in the dark as I was the first day I saw her as to why she left that man.’
Mrs Caffyn wiped the corners of her eyes with her apron.
‘It’s gospel truth as I never took to anybody as I’ve took to her.’
After Baruch had gone, Clara returned.