"Not very late. I think he left by about eleven o'clock," she answered,
with quite a good assumption of indifference. "But I expect being out in
the fresh air for the first time for several days made me sleep rather
soundly. Why didn't you call me as usual? I'm not an invalid any longer,
you know."
"I thought if so be you'd a mind to sleep on, 'twouldn't do you no harm,"
vouchsafed Maria rather grumpily. She was inwardly burning with curiosity,
but felt unequal to the task of coping with her young mistress's facility
for eluding tentative inquiries, so she stumped downstairs to the kitchen
regions, and left her to consume her breakfast in solitude.
Ann hurried through the meal as quickly as possible. She felt tremendously
alive to-day, and the breezy sunshiny morning, the blue sky with white
fleecy clouds blowing across it, the wheeling swallows, all seemed
curiously in accord with her mood. She rose and, dressing quickly, went
about her various household duties with a subconscious desire to get them
finished and out of the way as soon as possible, and thus be free for
whatever the day might bring forth.
That afternoon she and Robin were due at the rectory for tea.
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