she said hurriedly. "I am afraid you will think it
impracticable--perhaps wrong. It's only this: you see, as there is no
one depending on me--as I am practically alone--it seemed to me I might
make an experiment. Four thousand a year is a great deal more than I
need ever spend--than I _ought_, of course, to spend on myself. I don't
think altogether what I used to think. I mean to keep up this house--to
make it beautiful, to hand it on, perhaps _more_ beautiful than I found
it, to those that come after. And I mean to maintain enough service in
it both to keep it in order and to make it a social centre for all the
people about--for everybody of all classes, so far as I can. I want it
to be a place of amusement and delight and talk to us all--especially to
the very poor. After all"--her cheek flushed under the quickening of her
thought--"_everybody_ on the estate, in their different degree, has
contributed to this house, in some sense, for generations. I want it to
come into their lives--to make it _their_ possession, _their_ pride,--as
well as mine. But then that isn't all. The people here can enjoy
nothing, use nothing, till they have a worthier life of their own. Wages
here, you know, are terribly low, much lower"--she added timidly--"than
with you. They are, as a rule, eleven or twelve shillings a week. Now
there seem to be about one hundred and sixty labourers on the estate
altogether, in the farmers' employment and in our own. Some, of course,
are boys, and some old men earning a half-wage. Mr. Craven and I have
worked it out, and we find that an average weekly increase of five
shillings per head--which would give the men of full age and in full
work about a pound a week--would work out at about two thousand a year."

She paused a moment, trying to put her further statement into its best
order.

"Your farmers, you know," he said, smiling, after a pause, "will be your
chief difficulty."

"Of course! But I thought of calling a meeting of them. I have discussed
it with Mr. French--of course he thinks me mad!--but he gave me some
advice. I should propose to them all fresh leases, with certain small
advantages that Louis Craven thinks would tempt them, at a reduced
rental exactly answering to the rise in wages. Then, in return they must
accept a sort of fair-wage clause, binding them to pay henceforward the
standard wage of the estate."

She looked up, her face expressing urgent though silent interrogation.

"You mus