"
Here her attention was suddenly arrested by Madonna, who was eagerly
and even impatiently signing on her fingers: "What are you saying to
Patty? Oh! do let me know what you are saying to Patty?"
Mrs. Blyth repeated, by means of the deaf-and-dumb alphabet, the
instructions which she had just given to the servant; and
added--observing the paleness and agitation of Madonna's face--"Let us
not frighten ourselves unnecessarily, my dear, about Zack; he may turn
out to be much better than we think him from reading his letter."
"May I go with Patty?" rejoined Madonna, her eyes sparkling with
anxiety, her fingers trembling as they rapidly formed these words. "Let
me take my walk with Patty, just as if nothing had happened. Let me go!
pray, let me go!"
"She can't be of any use, poor child," thought Mrs. Blyth; "but if I
keep her here, she will only be fretting herself into one of her
violent headaches. Besides, she may as well have her walk now, for I
shan't be able to spare Patty later in the day." Influenced by these
considerations, Mrs. Blyth, by a nod, intimated to her adopted child
that she might accompany the housemaid to Kirk Street. Madonna, the
moment this permission was granted, led the way out of the room; but
stopped as soon as she and Patty were alone on the staircase, and,
making a sign that she would be back directly, ran up to her own
bed-chamber.
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