[Ealasaide]

Leaving Finian at the door, Ærosylle clattered into the kitchen and shouted something at the top of her voice to Ædhral. Startled, Sallie crouched down on the chair upon which she had been standing and tried to make herself as small as possible. While Ærosylle had never hurt Sallie, the little girl was afraid of her. Ærosylle could be very noisy and tended to make lots of quick and unexpected movements, popping up at times with her face right in front of Sallie's when the little girl least expected it. Seeing that Ærosylle was busy talking to Ædhral, Sallie climbed down from the chair and went to hide under the kitchen table, well out of the way of Ærosylle. Crouching in her new hiding place, with her arms wrapped around her knees, Sallie watched the door to the common room. Every time it swung open with the passage of Cook, Finian, or one of the two serving girls, she tried to see out. Her papa had told her not to go in there without him or one of the other grownups with her, but he had not said she couldn't look. She wanted to see the little sick boy that Cook had carried a tray out to.

She had not seen much of anything when suddenly there came a bang of the front door slamming open in the common room, followed a little later by a second bang. And voices. Sallie heard her papa's voice mixed in with the voices of the other grownups. And then the loud barking of a dog.

"What on earth!" exclaimed Cook. Sallie saw her and Ada look at each other, then Cook wiped her hands on her apron and went to stand in the doorway, looking out. Ada and Ærosylle crowded into the doorway behind her. Crawling out from under the table, Sallie crept up behind them and tried to see around the skirts of Ada and Cook. Finally noticing her, Ada reached down and picked Sallie up, settling her solidly against her hip.

"What are they doing?" asked Sallie, her little voice piping above the barking of the dog. She could see a very big man standing in front of her papa, looking at him with an ugly, mean face. Her papa talked quietly to the ugly man as a big black dog that Sallie had never seen before barked at them. A pretty lady tried to stop the dog from barking but he didn't stop.

"Shhh," Ada said gently, shaking her head. "We mustn't make a sound. We must let Finian and your papa handle things."

Sallie nodded, staring into the scene with wide eyes. Then she saw the little boy at the center of the group that included her papa, Finian, and Miss Bêthberry. He was hunched over like he thought someone was going to hit him and his skin looked like raw mutton. "Is that the little sick boy?" she whispered to Ada, pointing at him with a little pink finger.

"Yes," said Ada.

"Is my papa and Miss Bêthberry trying to make him better?"

"Yes," answered Ada again in a hushed voice. "They are," she added, correcting the little girl's grammar.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Hush, Sallie."

Sallie took a big breath and closed her mouth. She wanted to ask what the ugly man was doing there, too, and why the little boy looked so scared, and why did her papa look so angry, but she knew that Ada didn't want her to talk. She wanted to please Ada, so she decided she would be quiet as a mouse. Papa would explain it later.