first time she was taken to the house, in a sort of despair,
with a face wan in its anxiety.

'What's the matter, Barker?' Esther said cheerily. 'You and I will soon
put this in nice order, with Christopher's help; and then, when we have
got it fitted up, we shall be as comfortable as ever; you will see.'

'Oh dear Miss Esther!' the housekeeper ejaculated; 'that ever I should
see this day! The like of you and my master!'

'What then?' said Esther, smiling. 'Barker, shall we not take what the
Lord gives us, and be thankful? I am.'

'There ain't no use for Christopher here, as I see,' Mrs. Barker went
on.

'No, and he will not be here. Do you see now how happy it is that he
has got a home of his own?--which you were disposed to think so
unfortunate.'

'I haven't changed my mind, mum,' said the housekeeper. 'How's your
horse goin' to be kep', without Christopher?'

'I am not going to keep the horse. Here I shall not need him.'

'The drives you took was very good for you, mum.'

'I will take walks instead. Don't you be troubled. Dear Barker, do you
not think our dear Lord knows what is good for us? and do you not think
what He chooses is the best? I do.'

Esther's face was very unshadowed, but the housekeeper's, on the
contrary, seemed to darken more and more. She stood in the middle of
the floor, in one of the small rooms, and surveyed the prospect,
alternately within and without the windows.

'Miss Esther, dear,' she began again, as if irrepressibly, 'you're
young, and you don't know how queer the world is. There's many folks
that won't believe you are what you be, if they see you are livin' in a
place like this.'

Did not Esther know that? and was it not one of the whispers in her
mind which she found it hardest to combat? She had begun already to
touch the world on that side on which Barker declared it was 'queer.'
She went, it is true, hardly at all into society; scarce ever left the
narrow track of her school routine; yet even there once or twice a
chance encounter had obliged her to recognise the fact that in taking
the post of a teacher she had stepped off the level of her former
associates. It had hurt her a little and disappointed her. Nobody,
indeed, had tried to be patronizing; that was nearly impossible towards
anybody whose head was set on her shoulders in the manner of Miss
Gainsborough's; but she felt the slighting regard in which low-bred
people held her on account of her work and position.