Richard talked on the subject for some moments; it was easier to do so than to come at once to the words he had in mind. But he worked round by degrees, fighting the way hard. ‘The house is empty at last.’ ‘Is it? And you have gone to live there?’ ‘Not yet. I must get some furniture in first.’ Emma kept silence; the shadows of a smile journeyed trembling from her eyes to her lips. The question voiced itself from Richard: ‘When will you be ready to go thither?’ ‘I’m afraid--I don’t think I must leave them just yet--for a little longer.’ He did not look at her. Emma was reading his face; the characters had become all at once a little puzzling; her own fault, of course, but the significance she sought was not readily discoverable. ‘Can’t they manage without you?’ he asked. He believed his tone to express annoyance: in fact, it scarcely did so. ‘I think it won’t be very long before they can,’ Emma replied; ‘we have some plain sewing to do for Mrs. Robinson at the “Queen’s Head,” and she’s promised to recommend us. I’ve just called there, and she really seems anxious to help. If Jane was stronger I shouldn’t mind so much, but she mustn’t work hard just yet, and Kate has a great deal to do with the children. Besides, Kate can’t get out of the slop sewing, and of course that won’t do for this kind of work. She’ll get the stitch very soon.’ Richard seemed to be musing. ‘You see’--she moved nearer to his side,--‘it’s only just the beginning. I’m so afraid that they wouldn’t be able to look about for work if I left them now. Jane hasn’t the strength to go and see people; and Kate--well, you know, Richard, she can’t quite suit herself to people’s fancies. I’m sure I can do so much in a few weeks; just that’ll make all the difference. The beginning’s everything, isn’t it?’ Richard’s eye travelled over her face. He was not without understanding of the nobleness which housed in that plain-clad, simple-featured woman there before him. It had shot a ray to the secret places of his heart before now; it breathed a passing summer along his veins at this present. ‘What need is there to bother?’ he said, of purpose fixing his eye steadily on hers. ‘Work ‘ll come in time, I dare say. Let them look after their house.’ Perhaps Emma detected something not wholly sincere in this suggestion. She let her eyes fall, then raised them more quickly. ‘Oh, but it’s far better, Richard; and we really have made a beginning. Jane, I’m sure, wouldn’t hear of giving it up. It’s wonderful what spirits she has. And she’d be miserable if she wasn’t trying to work--I know so well how it would be. Just a few weeks longer. She really does get much better, and she says it’s all “the business.” It gives her something to occupy her mind.’ ‘Well, it’s just as you like,’ said Richard, rather absently.