356
WYLDER'S HAJVD.
Larkin, just as things were at the worst, found a way to
make everything quite right again — and we'll be so hap-
py. Like a bird I could sing, and fly almost — a foolish
old thing — ha! ha! ha! — such an old goose!" and
she wiped her eyes again.
"Hush! is that Fairy? Oh, no, it is only Anne
singing. Little man has not been well yesterday and to-
day. He won't eat, and looks pale, but he slept very
well, my darling man; and Doctor Buddle kindly took
him into his room, and examined him, and says it may
be nothing at all, please Heaven," and she sighed, smil-
ing still.
"No headache or fever ?" asked Miss Lake cheerfully,
though, she knew not why, there seemed something om-
inous in this little ailment.
"None at all; oh, none, thank you; none in the
world.
"Please Heaven, he'll be quite well to-morrow — the
darling little man," said Rachel.
"Here's Mr. Larkin !" cried Dolly, jumping up, and
smiling and nodding at the window to that long and natty
apparition, who glided to the hall-door with a sad smile,
raising his well-brushed hat as he passed.
He was followed by a young and bilious clerk, with
black hair and a melancholy countenance, and by old
Buggs — his conducting man — always grinning, whose
red face glared in the little garden like a great bunch of
hollyhocks.
. "There is that awful Mr. Buggs," said Dolly, with a
look of honest alarm. "I often wonder so Christian a
man as Mr. Larkin can countenance him. He is hardly
ever without a black eye. He has been three nights
together without once putting off his clothes — think of
that?"