I could tell of such, but I won't, not I. But I'm not going to stand
by and see an innocent boy's tongue cut out of his mouth; though I
wouldn't say, Mr. Brimacott, but what there's tongues in the parish
that would be the better for cutting."
It was in this appalling form that the projected operation with the
sixpence made its way through the Corporal to Lady Eleanor, who was
horrified. She at once sent for both Mrs. Mugford and Mrs. Fry to get
at the truth of the story, and gave them such a scolding for their
folly and their quarrelsomeness that they departed weeping hand in
hand, in deep sympathy with each other as two thoroughly ill-used
women. They were a little frightened too, for though they had long
known Lady Eleanor as the gentlest and kindest of creatures, they now
found out that her beautiful face could be stern, and her voice sharp
and severe in rebuke; but for all their crying they knew in their
hearts that they liked her all the better for it.
So all attempts to heal Tommy by magic were stopped; and meanwhile
Colonel George scoured the moor in all directions without the least
success in finding out anything about the strange woman and her idiot
son. He had ridden first to Cossacombe, which was twenty miles away on
the other side of the moor, and had heard that the woman had been seen
there occasionally, but the idiot never; in fact no one seemed to know
anything about him.
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