nty years had been the
custodian of the Hatchard library, died suddenly of pneumonia; and the
day after the funeral Charity went to see Miss Hatchard, and asked to be
appointed librarian. The request seemed to surprise Miss Hatchard: she
evidently questioned the new candidate's qualifications.

"Why, I don't know, my dear. Aren't you rather too young?" she
hesitated.

"I want to earn some money," Charity merely answered.

"Doesn't Mr. Royall give you all you require? No one is rich in North
Dormer."

"I want to earn money enough to get away."

"To get away?" Miss Hatchard's puzzled wrinkles deepened, and there was
a distressful pause. "You want to leave Mr. Royall?"

"Yes: or I want another woman in the house with me," said Charity
resolutely.

Miss Hatchard clasped her nervous hands about the arms of her chair. Her
eyes invoked the faded countenances on the wall, and after a faint cough
of indecision she brought out: "The... the housework's too hard for you,
I suppose?"

Charity's heart grew cold. She understood that Miss Hatchard had no
help to give her and that she would have to fight her way out of her
difficulty alone. A deeper sense of isolation overcame her; she felt
incalculably old. "She's got to be talked to like a baby," she thought,
with a feeling of compassion for Miss Hatchard's long immaturity. "Yes,
that's it," she said aloud. "The housework's too hard for me: I've been
coughing a good deal this fall."

She noted the immediate effect of this suggestion. Miss Hatchard paled
at the memory of poor Eudora's taking-off, and promised to do what she
could. But of course there were people she must consult: the clergyman,
the selectmen of North Dormer, and a distant Hatchard relative at
Springfield. "If you'd only gone to school!" she sighed. She followed
Charity to the door, and there, in the security of the threshold, said
with a glance of evasive appeal: "I know Mr. Royall is... trying at
times; but his wife bore with him; and you must always remember,
Charity, that it was Mr. Royall who brought you down from the Mountain."
Charity went home and opened the door of Mr. Royall's "office." He was
sitting there by the stove reading Daniel Webster's speeches. They had
met at meals during the five days that had elapsed since he had come to
her door, and she had walked at his side at Eudora's funeral; but they
had not spoken a word to each other.

He glanced up in surprise as she entered, and she noticed