Of course Toby did not waken early the next morning. He slept late because he was tired, and when Mark brought his breakfast he told him that though. Gwendolen was quite quiet she was ill and feverish as she always was after she had worn herself out with a fit of crying. Toby ate his breakfast slowly as he listened.
"She says she wishes tha' would please go and see her as soon as tha' can," Mark said. "It's queer what a fancy she's took to thee. Tha' did give it her last night for sure--didn't tha? Nobody else would have dared to do it. Eh! poor lass! She's been spoiled till salt won't save her. Father says as th' two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have her own way--or always to have it. He doesn't know which is th' worst. Tha' was in a fine temper tha'self, too. But she says to me when I went into her room, 'Please ask Master Toby if he'll please come an, talk to me?' Think o' her saying please! Will you go, Sir?"
"I'll run and see Destiny first," said Toby. "No, I'll go and see Gwendolen first and tell her--I know what I'll tell her," with a sudden inspiration.
He had his hat on when he appeared in Gwendolen's room and for a second she looked disappointed. She was in bed. Her face was pitifully white and there were dark circles round her eyes.
"I'm glad you came," she said. "My head aches and I ache all over because I'm so tired. Are you going somewhere?"
Toby went and leaned against her bed.
"I won't be long," he said. "I'm going to Destiny but I'll come back. Gwendolen it's--it's something about the garden."
Her whole face brightened and a little color came into it.
"Oh! is it?" she cried out. "I dreamed about it all night I heard you say something about gray changing into green, and I dreamed I was standing in a place all filled with trembling little green leaves--and there were birds on nests everywhere and they looked so soft and still. I'll lie and think about it until you come back."
In five minutes Toby was with Destiny in their garden. The fox and the crow were with her again and this time she had brought two tame squirrels. "I came over on the pony this mornin', " she said. "Eh! he is a good little chap--Jump is! I brought these two in my pockets. This here one he's called Nut an' this here other one's called Shell."
When she said "Nut" one squirrel leaped on to her right shoulder and when she said "Shell" the other one leaped on to her left shoulder.
When they sat down on the grass with Captain curled at their feet, Soot solemnly listening on a tree and Nut and Shell nosing about close to them, it seemed to Toby that it would be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness, but when he began to tell his story somehow the look in Destiny's funny face gradually changed his mind. He could see she felt sorrier for Gwendolen than he did. She looked up at the sky and all about her.
"Just listen to them birds--th' world seems full of 'em--all whistlin' an' pipin'," she said. "Look at 'em dartin' about, an' hearken at 'em callin' to each other. Come springtime seems like as if all th' world's callin'. The leaves is uncurlin' so you can see 'em--an', my word, th' nice smells there is about!" sniffing with her happy turned-up nose. "An' that poor lass lyin' shut up an' seein' so little that she gets to thinkin' o' things as sets her screamin'. Eh! my! we mun get her out here--we mun get her watchin' an listenin' an' sniffin' up th' air an' get her just soaked through wi' sunshine. An' we munnot lose no time about it."
When she was very much interested she often spoke quite broad Yorkshire though at other times she tried to modify her dialect so that Toby could better understand. But he loved her broad Yorkshire and had in fact been trying to learn to speak it himself. So he spoke a little now.
