'll not have to tramp it into town no more--you'll send
a man round. And who is agoin' to pay me, miss, if you'll excuse me
asking?"

"Lady Winterbourne and I," said Marcella, smiling. "We're going to
employ this village and two others, and make as good business of it as
we can. But we're going to begin by giving the workers better wages, and
in time we hope to teach them the higher kinds of work."

"Lor'!" said Mrs. Jellison. "But I'm not one o' them as kin do with
changes." She took up her plait and looked at it thoughtfully.
"Eighteen-pence a score. It wor that rate when I wor a girl. An' it ha'
been dibble--dibble--iver sense; a penny off here, an' a penny off
there, an' a hard job to keep a bite ov anythink in your mouth."

"Then I may put down your name among our workers, Mrs. Jellison?" said
Marcella, rising and smiling down upon her.

"Oh, lor', no; I niver said that," said Mrs. Jellison, hastily. "I don't
hold wi' shilly-shallyin' wi' yer means o' livin'. I've took my plait to
Jimmy Gedge--'im an' 'is son, fust shop on yer right hand when yer git
into town--twenty-five year, summer and winter--me an' three other
women, as give me a penny a journey for takin' theirs. If I wor to go
messin' about wi' Jimmy Gedge, Lor' bless yer, I should 'ear ov it--oh!
I shoulden sleep o' nights for thinkin' o' how Jimmy ud serve me out
when I wor least egspectin' ov it. He's a queer un. No, miss, thank yer
kindly; but I think I'll bide."

Marcella, amazed, began to argue a little, to expound the many
attractions of the new scheme. Greatly to her annoyance, Wharton came
forward to her help, guaranteeing the solvency and permanence of her new
partnership in glib and pleasant phrase, wherein her angry fancy
suspected at once the note of irony. But Mrs. Jellison held firm,
embroidering her negative, indeed, with her usual cheerful chatter, but
sticking to it all the same. At last there was no way of saving dignity
but to talk of something else and go--above all, to talk of something
else before going, lest the would-be benefactor should be thought a
petty tyrant.

"Oh, Johnnie?--thank yer, miss--'e's an owdacious young villain as iver
I seed--but _clever_--lor', you'd need 'ave eyes in yer back to look
after _'im_. An' _coaxin'_! ''Aven't yer brought me no sweeties,
Gran'ma?' 'No, my dear,' says I. 'But if you was to _look_, Gran'ma--in
both your pockets, Gran'ma--iv you was to let _me_ look?' It's a sharp
un Isabella, she d