Kate followed her, looked, and turned to the woman. "Draw up the blind," she said. There was a feeble smile, and a shake of the head. "It is up, ma'am, and it's been like that all day--black as pitch. Plagues of Ejup couldn't have been worse." "Oh, it is impossible for you to go," said Kate, quickly. "What am I to do?" "Well, ma'am, if you wouldn't mind, I think I could tell you. You see, master come to this place when Mr Jenour died, and there hasn't been a thing taken away since. It's just as it used to be when Mrs Jenour was alive, years before. There's drawers and drawers and wardrobes full of everything a lady can want; and there's never a week goes by that I don't spend hours in going over and folding and airing, and I spend shillings and shillings every year in lavender. So if you wouldn't mind--" Sarah Plant did not finish her sentence, but stood looking appealingly at the visitor. "It is impossible for you to go out, Mrs Plant." "Sarah, if you wouldn't mind, ma'am, and it's very good of you to say so." "Well, then, Sarah," said Kate, smiling, and feeling more at ease, "you shall help me to get over the difficulty. Now go and see to your duties. I do not wish Mr Garstang to be troubled by my visit." "Troubled, my dear young lady! I'm sure he'd be pleased to do anything. I'm not given to chatter and gossip, and, as I've often told Becky, if she'd been more obedient to me, and not been so foolish as to talk to milkmen, she'd have been a happier girl. But I can't help telling you what I heard master say this morning to himself, after he'd been giving me my orders: `Ah,' he says, quite soft like, `if I had had a child like that!' and of course, miss, he meant you." Speaking dramatically, this formed Sarah Plant's exit, but Kate called her back. "Would you mind and see that these two letters are posted? Have you any stamps?" "There's lots, ma'am, in that little stand," said the woman, pointing to the table; and a couple being affixed the woman took the letters out with her. About half an hour later Garstang entered, smiling pleasantly, and offering his arm. "Dinner is waiting," he said, and he led his guest into the dining-room, where over a well-served meal, with everything in the best of taste, he laid himself out to increase the feeling of confidence he saw growing in Kate's eyes. His conversation was clever, if not brilliant; he showed that he had an amply stored mind, and his bearing was full of chivalrous respect; while feeling more at rest, Kate felt drawn to him, and the magnitude of her step grew less in her troubled eyes. The dinner was at an end, and they were seated over the dessert, Garstang sipping most temperately at his one glass of claret from time to time, and for some minutes there had been silence, during which he had been gazing thoughtfully at the girl.