"We ought not to wait till to-morrow to speak to Mrs. Milligan," said Mattia. "In the meantime that uncle might kill Arthur. He has never seen me and I'm going to see Mrs. Milligan at once and tell her."
There was some reason in what Mattia proposed, so I let him go off, telling him that I would wait for him at a short distance under a big chestnut tree. I waited a long time for Mattia. More than a dozen times I wondered if I had not made a mistake in letting him go. At last I saw him coming back, accompanied by Mrs. Milligan. I ran to her, and, seizing the hand that she held out to me, I bent over it. But she put her arms round me and, stooping down, kissed me tenderly on the forehead.
"Poor, dear child," she murmured.
With her beautiful white fingers she pushed the hair back from my forehead and looked at me for a long time.
"Yes, yes," she whispered softly.
I was too happy to say a word.
"Mattia and I have had a long talk," she said, "but I want you to tell me yourself how you came to enter the Driscoll family."
I told her what she asked and she only interrupted me to tell me to be exact on certain points. Never had I been listened to with such attention. Her eyes did not leave mine.
When I had finished she was silent for some time, still looking at me. At last she said: "This is a very serious matter and we must act prudently.
