"There"s no harm in asking him."
"Naw. Naw "aarm there isn"t," said Mrs. Gale doubtfully.
"I think I"ll ask him now," said Alice.
"I wouldn", look yo, nat ef I wuss yo, Miss Olice. I wouldn" gaw to "im in t" mistal all amoong t" doong. Yo"ll sha-ame "im, and yo"ll do nowt wi" Jimmy ef "e"s sha-amed."
"Leave it, Ally. We can come another day," said Gwenda.
"Thot"s it," said Mrs. Gale. "Coom another daay."
And as they turned away Jim"s voice thundered after them from his stronghold in the mistal.
"From av-ver-la.s.stin"--THOU ART GAWD!
To andless ye-ears ther sa-ame!"
The sisters stood listening. They looked at each other.
"I say!" said Gwenda.
"Isn"t he gorgeous? We"ll _have_ to come again. It would be a sin to waste him."
"It would."
"When shall we come?"
"There"s heaps of time. That voice won"t run away."
"No. But he might get pneumonia. He might die."
"Not he."
But Alice couldn"t leave it alone.
"How about Sunday? Just after dinner? He"ll be clean then."
"All right. Sunday."
But it was not till they had pa.s.sed the schoolhouse outside Garth village that Alice"s great idea came to her.
"Gwenda! The Concert! Wouldn"t he be ripping for the Concert!"
XX
But the concert was not till the first week in December; and it was in November that Rowcliffe began to form the habit that made him remarkable in Garth, of looking in at the Vicarage toward teatime every Wednesday afternoon.
Mrs. Gale, informed by Essy, was the first to condole with Mrs.
Blenkiron, the blacksmith"s wife, who had arranged to provide tea for Rowcliffe every Wednesday in the Surgery.
"Wall, Mrs. Blenkiron," she said, "yo" "aven"t got to mak" tae for yore doctor now?"
"Naw. I "aven"t," said Mrs. Blenkiron. "And it"s s.e.xpence clane gone out o" me packet av"ry week."
Mrs. Blenkiron was a distant cousin of the Greatorexes. She had what was called a superior manner and was handsome, in the slender, high-nosed, florid fashion of the Dale.
"But there," she went on. "I doan"t groodge it. "E"s yoong and you caann"t blaame him. They"s coompany for him oop at Vicarage."
""E"s coompany fer they, I rackon. And well yo" med saay yo" doan"t groodge it ef yo knawed arl we knaw, Mrs. Blenkiron. It"s no life fer yoong things oop there, long o" t" Vicar. Mind yo"--Mrs. Gale lowered her voice and looked up and down the street for possible eavesdroppers--"ef "e was to "ear on it, thot yoong Rawcliffe wouldn"t be "lowed t" putt "s nawse in at door agen. But theer--there"s nawbody"d be thot crool an" spittiful fer to goa an" tall "im. Our a.s.sy wouldn"t. She"d coot "er toong out foorst, a.s.sy would."
"Nawbody"ll get it out of _mae_, Mrs. Gale, though it"s wae as "as to sooffer for "t."
"Eh, but Dr. Rawcliffe"s a good maan, and "e"ll mak" it oop to yo", naw feear, Mrs. Blenkiron."
"And which of "em will it bae, Mrs. Gaale, think you?"
"I caann"t saay. But it woonna bae t" eldest. Nor t"
yoongest--joodgin"."
"Well--the lil" laa.s.s isn" breaaking "er "eart fer him, t" joodge by the looks of "er. I naver saw sech a chaange in anybody in a moonth."
""T a.s.sn" takken mooch to maake "er "appy," said Mrs. Gale. For Essy, who had informed her, was not subtle.
But of Ally"s happiness there could be no doubt. It lapped her, soaked into her like water and air. Her small head flowered under it and put out its secret colors; the dull gold of her hair began to shine again, her face showed a shallow flush under its pallor; her gray eyes were clear as if they had been dipped in water. Two slender golden arches shone above them. They hadn"t been seen there for five years.
"Who would have believed," said Mary, "that Ally could have looked so pretty?"
Ally"s prettiness (when she gazed at it in the gla.s.s) was delicious, intoxicating joy to Ally. She was never tired of looking at it, of turning round and round to get new views of it, of dressing her hair in new ways to set it off.
"Whatever have you done your hair like that for?" said Mary on a Wednesday when Ally came down in the afternoon with her gold spread out above her ears and twisted in a shining coil on the top of her head.
"To make it grow better," said Ally.
"Don"t let Papa catch you at it," said Gwenda, "if you want it to grow any more."
Gwenda was going out. She had her hat on, and was taking her walking-stick from the stand. Ally stared.
"You"re _not_ going out?"
"I am," said Gwenda.
And she laughed as she went. She wasn"t going to stay at home for Rowcliffe every Wednesday.