y began.

"Well!"

"He came to me for an answer, as he said he would."

"Well!"

"And I told him it should be as he would have it."

"Of course you would. I knew that."

"You told me that it was your duty and mine to give him whatever he
wanted."

"I didn't say nothing of the kind, Miss."

"Oh, Mrs Baggett!"

"I didn't. I said, if he wanted your head, you was to let him take
it. But if he wanted mine, you wasn't to give it to him."

"He asked me to be his wife, and I said I would."

"Then I may as well pack up and be off for Portsmouth."

"No; not so. I have obeyed you, and I think that in these matters you
should obey him too."

"I daresay; but at my age I ain't so well able to obey. I daresay as
them girls knew all about it, or they wouldn't have turned round upon
me like that. It's just like the likes of them. When is it to be,
Miss Lawrie?--because I won't stop in the house after you be the
missus of it. That's flat. If you were to talk till you're deaf and
dumb, I wouldn't do it. Oh, it don't matter what's to become of me! I
know that."

"But it will matter very much."

"Not a ha'porth."

"You ask him, Mrs Baggett."

"He's got his plaything. That's all he cares about. I've been with
him and his family almost from a baby, and have grown old a-serving
him, and it don't matter to him whether I goes into the hedges and
ditches, or where I goes. They say that service is no heritance, and
they says true. I'm to go to-- But don't mind me. He won't, and why
should you? Do you think you'll ever do half as much for him as I've
done? He's got his troubles before him now;--that's the worst of it."

This was very bad. Mrs Baggett had been loud in laying down for her
the line of duty which she should follow, and she, to the best of her
ability, had done as Mrs Baggett had told her. It was the case that
Mrs Baggett had prevailed with her, and now the woman turned against
her! Was it true that he had "his troubles before him," because of
her acceptance of his offer? If so, might it not yet be mended? Was
it too late? Of what comfort could she be to him, seeing that she had
been unable to give him her heart? Why should she interfere with the
woman's happiness? In a spirit of true humility she endeavoured to
think how she might endeavour to do the best. Of one thing she was
quite, quite sure,--that all the longings of her very soul were fixed
upon that other man. He was away;--perhaps he had forgotten her;