"Morning! Morning, missy! Well, it's a boy."
"What? Yonder?" asked Mrs. Baines, indicating the confectioner's.
Dr. Harrop nodded. "I wanted to inform him," said he, jerking his
shoulder in the direction of the swaggering coward.
"What did I tell you, Constance?" said Mrs. Baines, turning to her
daughter.
Constance's confusion was equal to her pleasure. The alert doctor
had halted at the foot of the two steps, and with one hand in the
pocket of his "full-fall" breeches, he gazed up, smiling out of
little eyes, at the ample matron and the slender virgin.
"Yes," he said. "Been up most of th' night. Difficult! Difficult!"
"It's all RIGHT, I hope?"
"Oh yes. Fine child! Fine child! But he put his mother to some
trouble, for all that. Nothing fresh?" This time he lifted his
eyes to indicate Mr. Baines's bedroom.
"No," said Mrs. Baines, with a different expression.
"Keeps cheerful?"
"Yes."
"Good! A very good morning to you."
He strode off towards his house, which was lower down the street.
"I hope she'll turn over a new leaf now," observed Mrs. Baines to
Constance as she closed the door. Constance knew that her mother
was referring to the confectioner's wife; she gathered that the
hope was slight in the extreme.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93