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Mavis noticed his preoccupation. "I wonder if you would do me a favour?" she asked. "And what might that be?" "If you would sing?" "Delighted!" he cried, as he excitedly sprang to his feet. "How nice of you!" "Stay! What about the accompaniment?" "I can manage that." "At sight?" "I think so." "You're an acquisition to Melkbridge. There's one other thing." "I knew you'd disappoint me. What is it?"
"You've broken your promise," he presently remarked. "Haven't you, too?" she asked, without looking up. "No." "Sure?" "I was so impatient to see you, I hung about in sight of your house, so that I could catch sight of you directly when you came out." "What about Melkbridge people?" "What do I care!" "What about me?" He turned away with an angry gesture.
Then, with a sharp bark of delight, Jill sprang from the hedge to jump delightedly about her mistress. Mavis knelt down and pressed her lips to her faithful friend's nose. At the same moment, the wind carried certain sounds to her ears from the direction of Melkbridge. Mavis looked up. The expression of fear which Miss Toombs's face wore confirmed her suspicions.
They left the cowslip field regretfully to walk the remaining two miles to Melkbridge. "I want you to promise me something," she said, after some moments of silence. "What?" "To promise me to do something with your life." "Why should you wish that?" "You saved Jill's life. If you hadn't, I should now be miserable and heart-broken, whereas Will you promise me what I ask?"
"What has become of you all this time?" "I've been working in London." "I've often thought of you. What are you doing now?" "I'm looking for something to do." "I suppose you'd never care to come back and work for me in Melkbridge?" "Nothing I should like better," remarked Mavis, as her heart leapt.
Before Gawd, I'm as good a maid " These were the last words Mavis heard as she hurried away from Miss Ewer. Four weeks later, Mavis got out of the train at Melkbridge. She breathed a sigh of relief when her feet touched the platform; her one regret was that she was not leaving London further away than the hundred miles which separated Melkbridge from the metropolis.
"She tried to get my time for her holidays, but it's now arranged that she goes away when I get back." "Where is she going?" asked Mavis absently. "Cornwall." "Cornwall? Which part?" "South, I believe. Why?" "Curiosity," replied Mavis. Then Miss Toombs told Mavis the rest of the Melkbridge news.
Beyond giving Mavis the curtest of nods, this young person took no notice of her. Mavis was more grateful than otherwise for Miss Hunter's indifference; she had feared a series of searching questions with regard to all that had happened since she had been away from Melkbridge. Miss Toombs's appearance and conduct at meeting with Mavis was not the only strange behaviour which she displayed.
"I shall buy you a bottle of port wine," said Mavis. "What say?" Mavis repeated her words. "Oh, I say! Fancy me 'avin' port wine! I once 'ad a glass; it did make me feel 'appy." Two days later, in accordance with the contents of a letter she had received from Mrs Farthing, Mavis met the train at Paddington that was to bring her dear Jill from Melkbridge.
Mavis could hardly believe her eyes. She had already pawned most of her trinkets, till now there alone remained her father's gifts, from which she was exceedingly loath to part. The three pounds, in relieving her of this necessity, was in the nature of a godsend. Now she stood on the platform at Melkbridge. Her luggage had been put out of the train, which had steamed away.
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