The woman touched a bell-handle in the hall, and then drew back a little, with a show of respect, as her eyes, still eagerly, and full of compassion, scanned the new mistress she had been told to obey. "Will you go first, ma'am?" "No: be good enough to show me what it is necessary for me to see." "Oh, master said I was to show you everything you liked, miss--I mean, ma'am. It's a dreadfully dark day to show you, but I've got the gas lit everywhere, and it does warm the house nicely and keep out the damp." Kate longed to ask the woman a few questions, but she shrank from speaking, and followed her pretty well all over the place until she stopped on the first floor landing before a heavy curtain which apparently veiled a window. "I hope you find everything to your satisfaction, ma'am--that the house has been properly kept." "Everything I have seen shows the greatest care," said Kate. "Thank you, ma'am," said the woman, and her next words aroused her companion's attention at once, for the desire within her was strong to know more of her new guardian's private life, though it would have been, she felt, impossible to question. "You see, master is here so very seldom that there is no encouragement for one to spend much time in cleaning and dusting, and oh, the times it has come to me like a wicked temptation to leave things till to-morrow; but I resisted, for I knew that if I did once, Becky would be sure to twice. You see, master is mostly at his other house when he isn't at his offices, where he just has snacks and lunches brought in on trays; but it's all going to be different now, he tells me, and the house is to be kept up properly, and very glad I am, for it has been like wilful waste for such a beautiful place never hardly to be used, and never a lady in it in my time." "Then Mrs Garstang did not reside here?" "Oh, no, ma'am! nor old master's lady neither--not in my time." "Mr Garstang's father?" "Oh, no, ma'am: Mr Jenour, who had it before master, and--and died here--I mean there," said the woman, in a whisper, and she jerked her head toward the heavy curtain. "It was Mr Jenour's place, and he collected all the books and china and foreign curiosities. I'll tell you all about it some day, ma'am." "Thank you," said Kate, quietly. "I will go down to the library now; I wish to write." "There's pen, ink and paper in there, ma'am," said the woman, jerking her head sideways; "and you can see the little lib'ry at the same time." "I would rather leave that till another time." "Hah!" came in a deep low sigh, as if of relief, and Kate turned quickly round in surprise, just catching sight of the face with the handkerchief bound round it that she had seen before. It was drawn back into one of the rooms instantly, and Kate turned her questioning eyes directly upon the housekeeper. "It's only Becky, ma'am--my gal. She's been following us about to peep at you all the time. I did keep shaking my head at her, but she would come."