r told you how I blamed myself when I heard--and I didn't
wonder at you. It _was_ hard when your mother was hardly cold to see
your father----'

'Yes; now that's enough, Wark. You know we never speak of that.'

'No, we've never spoken about it. And, of course, you won't need me any
more like you did then. But it's looking back and remembering--it's that
that's making it so hard to leave you now. But----'

'Well?'

'My friends have been talking to me.'

'About----'

'Yes, this post.' Then, almost angrily, 'I didn't try for it. It's come
after me. My cousin knows the man.'

'The man who wants you to go to him as housekeeper?' Vida wrinkled her
brows. Wark hadn't said 'gentleman,' who alone in her employer's
experience had any need of a housekeeper. 'You mean you don't know him
yourself?'

'Not yet, 'm. I know he's a market gardener, and he wants his house
looked after.'

'What if he does? A market gardener won't be able to pay the wages
I----'

'The wages aren't much to begin with--but he's getting along--except for
the housekeeping. That's in a bad way.'

'What if it is? I never heard such nonsense. You don't want to leave me,
Wark, for a market gardener you've never so much as seen;' and Miss
Levering covered her discomfort by a little smiling.

'My cousin's seen him many a time. She likes him.'

'Let your cousin go, then, and keep his house for him.'

'My cousin has her own house to keep, and she's got a young baby.'

'Oh, the woman who brought her child here once?'

'Yes, 'm, the child you gave the coral beads to. My cousin has written
and talked about it ever since.'

'About the beads?'

'About the market gardener. And the way his house is--Ever since we came
back to England she's been going on at me about it. I told her all along
I couldn't leave you, but she's always said (since that day you walked
about with the baby and gave him the beads to play with, and wouldn't
let her make him cry by taking them away)--ever since then my cousin
has said you'd understand.'

'What would I understand?'

Wark laid her hand on the nearest of the shining bars of brass, and
slowly she polished it with her open palm. She obviously found it
difficult to go on with her defence.

'I wanted my cousin to come and explain to you.'

Here was Wark in a new light indeed! If she really wanted any creature
on the earth to speak for her. As she stood there in stolid
embarrassment polishing the shiny bar, Miss Lever