It was not to Mahony's mind that she returned with Mrs. Beamish--but
what else could be done? After lying a prisoner through the hot summer,
she was sadly in need of a change. And Mrs. Beamish promised her a diet
of unlimited milk and eggs, as well as the do nothing life that befitted
an invalid. Just before they left, a letter arrived from John demanding
the keys of his house, and proposing that Polly should come to town to
set it in order for him, and help him to engage a housekeeper. A
niggardly--a truly "John-ish"--fashion of giving an invitation,
thought Mahony, and was not for his wife accepting it. But Polly was so
pleased at the prospect of seeing her brother that he ended by agreeing
to her going on to Melbourne as soon as she had thoroughly recuperated.
Peace between him and Mrs. Beamish was dearly bought up to the last;
they barely avoided a final explosion. At the beginning of her third
month's absence from home the good woman grew very restive, and sighed
aloud for the day on which she would be able to take her departure.
"I expec' my bein' away like this'll run clean into a fifty-poun' note,"
she said one evening. "When it comes to managin' an 'ouse, those two
girls of mine 'aven't a h'ounce o' gumption between them."
It WAS tactless of her, even Polly felt that; though she could
sympathise with the worry that prompted the words. As for Mahony, had he
had the money to do it, he would have flung the sum named straight at
her head.
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