"At all events, you 'll not go without seeing the doctor?"
"That I will. I have some experience of him as a questioner in the Scripture-school of a Saturday, and I 'll not stand a cross-examination in profane matters from so skilled a hand. Tell him from me that I had one of my flighty fits on me, and that I knew I 'd make such a sorry defence if we were to meet, that, in the words of his own song, 'I ran awa' in the morning.'"
She shook her head in silence, and seemed far from satisfied.
"Tell him, however, that I 'll go and see Dolly the first day I'm free, and bring him back a full account of her, how she looks, and what she says of herself."
The thought of his return flashed across the poor mother's heart like sunshine over a landscape, spreading light and gladness everywhere. "And when will that be, Tony?" cried she, looking up into his eyes.
"Let me see. To-morrow will be Wednesday."
"To be sure, Thursday,--Thursday, the ninth; Friday, Liverpool; Saturday, London! Sunday will do for a visit to Dolly; I suppose there will be no impropriety in calling on her of a Sunday?"
"The M'Graders are a Scotch family, I don't know if they 'd like it."
"That shall be thought of. Let me see; Monday for the great man, Tuesday and Wednesday to see a little bit of London, and back here by the end of the week."
"Well, do think it; believe it, rely upon it. If you like, I'll give up the Tuesday and Wednesday, though I have some very gorgeous speculations about Westminster Abbey and the Tower, and the monkeys in the Zoological Gardens, with the pantomime for a finish in the evening. But you 've only to say the word, and I 'll start half an hour after I see the Don in Downing Street."
"No, of course not, darling. I 'm not so selfish as that; and if you find that London amuses you and is not too expensive,--for you know, Tony, what a slender purse we have,--stay a week,--two weeks, Tony, if you like it."
"What a good little woman it is!" said he, pressing her towards him; and the big tears trembled in his eyes and rolled heavily along his cheeks. "Now for the ugly part,--the money, I mean."
"I have eleven pounds in the house, Tony, if that will do to take with you."
"Do, mother! Of course it will. I don't mean to spend near so much; but how can you spare such a sum? that's the question."