STRANGWAY. [Taking the cage to the door] No! [He holds up the cage and opens it] Off you go, poor thing! [The bird flies out and away. The girls watch with round eyes the fling up of his arm, and the freed bird flying away.] IVY. I'm glad! [MERCY kicks her viciously and sobs. STRANGWAY comes from the door, looks at MERCY sobbing, and suddenly clasps his head. The girls watch him with a queer mixture of wonder, alarm, and disapproval.] GLADYS. [Whispering] Don't cry, Mercy. Bobbie'll soon catch yu another. [STRANGWAY has dropped his hands, and is looking again at MERCY. IVY sits with hands clasped, gazing at STRANGWAY. MERCY continues her artificial sobbing.] STRANGWAY. [Quietly] The class is over for to-day. [He goes up to MERCY, and holds out his hand. She does not take it, and runs out knuckling her eyes. STRANGWAY turns on his heel and goes into the house.] CONNIE. 'Twasn't his bird. IVY. Skylarks belong to the sky. Mr. Strangway said so. GLADYS. Not when they'm caught, they don't. IVY. They du. CONNIE. 'Twas her bird. IVY. He gave her sixpence for it. GLADYS. She didn't take it. CONNIE. There it is on the ground. IVY. She might have. GLADYS. He'll p'raps take my squirrel, tu. IVY. The bird sang--I 'eard it! Right up in the sky. It wouldn't have sanged if it weren't glad. GLADYS. Well, Mercy cried. IVY. I don't care. GLADYS. 'Tis a shame! And I know something. Mrs. Strangway's at Durford. CONNIE. She's--never! GLADYS. I saw her yesterday. An' if she's there she ought to be here. I told mother, an' she said: "Yu mind yer business." An' when she goes in to market to-morrow she'm goin' to see. An' if she's really there, mother says, 'tis a fine tu-du an' a praaper scandal. So I know a lot more'n yu du. [Ivy stares at her.] CONNIE. Mrs. Strangway told mother she was goin' to France for the winter because her mother was ill. GLADYS. 'Tisn't, winter now--Ascension Day. I saw her cumin' out o' Dr. Desert's house. I know 'twas her because she had on a blue dress an' a proud luke. Mother says the doctor come over here tu often before Mrs. Strangway went away, just afore Christmas. They was old sweethearts before she married Mr. Strangway. [To Ivy] 'Twas yure mother told mother that. [Ivy gazes at them more and more wide-eyed.] CONNIE. Father says if Mrs. Bradmere an' the old Rector knew about the doctor, they wouldn't 'ave Mr. Strangway 'ere for curate any longer; because mother says it takes more'n a year for a gude wife to leave her 'usband, an' 'e so fond of her. But 'tisn't no business of ours, father says. GLADYS. Mother says so tu. She's praaper set against gossip. She'll know all about it to-morrow after market. IVY. [Stamping her foot] I don't want to 'ear nothin' at all; I don't, an' I won't. [A rather shame faced silence falls on the girls.]