way."

"Well, you should write to her then."

"She don't want to keep me, Nettie don't,--she's but a poor man's
wife, and five chillen she 'as; it's not like as if she were me
daughter, ma'am."

"You have some small sum of money of your own every year, have you
not?" Mrs. de Tracy asked.

"Ten pound a year, ma'am; the same that me 'usband left me; two
'undred pounds 'e 'ad saved and 't is in an annuity; that's all I
'ave--that and me plum tree."

"The plum tree is not yours, either, Elizabeth; that belongs to the
land," said Mrs. de Tracy curtly.

"'T was me 'usband planted it, ma'am, years ago. We watched 'en and
pruned 'en and tended 'en like a child we did--an' now to be told 'er
ain't mine!"

"You're forgetting yourself, Elizabeth, I think," said Mrs. de Tracy.
It was simply impossible for her to see with the old woman's eyes; all
she remembered was the legal fact that any tree planted in Stoke Revel
ground belonged to the owner of the ground.

"But ma'am, 't is a big part of me living is the plum tree; only
yesterday I says to the young lady--Miss Cynthia's young lady--I
says, 'Dear knows how 't would be with me without I had the plum
tree.'"

"I cannot help that, Elizabeth: the plum tree is not yours, it belongs
to Stoke Revel."

"Then ma'am, you'll be 'lowing me something for it surely?"

"No," said Mrs. de Tracy obstinately, "you have no legal claim to
compensation, Elizabeth. I cannot undertake to allow you anything for
what is not yours. If I did it in your case you know quite well I
should have to do it in many others."

There was a long and heavy silence. Elizabeth Prettyman was taking in
her sentence of banishment from her old home; Mrs. de Tracy was merely
wondering how long it would take her to walk down that nasty steep bit
of path to the ferry. At last the old woman looked up.

"When must I be goin' then, ma'am?" she asked meekly.

Mrs. de Tracy considered. "The transfer of land from one person to
another generally takes some time: you will have several weeks here
still; I shall send you notice later which day to quit."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Elizabeth simply, and added, "The plum tree
blossoms 'ul be over by that time."

"I don't see what that has to do with it," said Mrs. de Tracy, in
whose heart there was room for no sentiment.

"'T would have been 'arder leavin' it in blossom time," the old woman
explained; but her hearer could not see the point. She rose slowly
from her