"Indeed! You'd rather not say. And do you suppose that I'd take a girl into my employment--a girl who cannot give me her name?" "I'd rather not. What is the use? You are very cruel. I wish there had been a blind one about; she wouldn't be so cruel." "Will you please go. Just go straight out by that door. Don't knock yourself against my silver again. The hall is very short, and the front door within a few feet away. Open it; get to the other side; shut it firmly after you and depart. Don't let me see you again." Nesta did depart. She felt as though some one had beaten her. She had never, perhaps, in all her pampered existence, received so many blows in such a short time as that terrible old Mrs Johnston had managed to inflict. At first, she was too angry to feel all the misery that such treatment could cause; but when she entered the Hogg establishment and found in very truth from the moist atmosphere of the place, from the absence of any preparations for a meal, and from the worried expression on Mrs Hogg's face, that she was indeed a laundress, she burst into tears. "Highty tighty!" said Mrs Hogg. "I can't have any more of this. Out you go. Did you see her?" "Oh, don't ask me. She's a perfect terror!" "_She_ has a sharp bark, but what I say is that her bark's worse nor her bite. She pays regular. Now, why couldn't you bring yourself to mind her and to soothe her down a bit? Maybe she'd do well by you." "_She_ wouldn't have me on any terms. She turned me right out. She didn't like me at all." "I'm not surprised at that. I don't much like von, either. But there's your dinner in the corner there. I wropt it up in a bit o' paper. You'd best take it out and eat it in the fields. It'll be all mess and moither and soapsuds and steaming water here for the rest of the day." "And when may I come back again?" "I don't want you back at all." "But I suppose you won't turn me out?" "No, you may share my bed. You behaved better last night. Come back when you can't bear yourself any longer, and if you can buy yourself a draught of milk and a hunch of bread for supper it would give less trouble getting anything ready. The boys'll have cold porridge to-night, without any milk, and that's all I can give you. I can never be bothered with cooking on a washing day." Nesta took up her dinner, which was wrapped up in a piece of old newspaper, and disappeared. She walked far, far until she was tired. Then she sat down and opened the little parcel. Within was the rind of a very hard cheese and a lump of very stale bread. But Nesta's hunger was now so strong that she ate up the bread and devoured the cheese and felt better afterwards. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE. MAKING SUNSHINE ALL ROUND.