After he had gone I sat for a long time by the fire. The neglected dinner-things remained on the table; the room was as shabby and as empty as possible, but not quite as cold as usual. Presently Hannah came in. She began to clear away the dinner-things. "Hannah," I said, "I told father about Miss Grace Donnithorne's visit." "And who in the name of wonder may she be?" asked Hannah. "Oh, a lady. I let her in myself this afternoon." "What call have you to be opening the hall door?" "Didn't you hear a very sharp ring at the hall door about three o'clock?" I said. Hannah stood stock-still. "I did, and I didn't," she replied. "What do you mean by you did and you didn't?" "Well, you see, child, I wasn't in the humour to mount them stairs, so I turned my deaf ear to the bell and shut up my hearing one with cotton-wool; after that the bell might ring itself to death." "Then, of course, Hannah, I had to go to the door." "Had to? Young ladies don't open hall doors." "Anyhow, I did go to the door, and I let the lady in, and she sat by the fire. She's a very nice lady indeed; she's about your age, but not scraggy." "I'll thank you, Miss Dumps, not to call me names." "But you are scraggy, for that means thin." "I may be thin and genteel, and not fat and vulgar, but I won't have it said of me that I'm scraggy," said Hannah; "and by you too, Miss Dumps, of all people!" "Very well, Hannah. _She_ was fat and vulgar, if you like, and _you_ are thin and genteel. Anyhow, I liked her; she was very jolly. She was about your age." "How d'you know what age I be?" "Didn't I see father put it down at the time of the last census?" "My word! I never knew children were listening. I didn't want my age known." "Hannah, you are forty-five." "And what if I be?" "That's very old," I said. "'Tain't," said Hannah. "It is," I repeated. "I asked Alex one day, and he said it was the age when women began to drop off." "Lawks! what does that mean?" said Hannah. "It's the way he expressed it. I don't want to frighten you, but he said lots of people died then." Hannah now looked really scared. "And that's why, Hannah," I continued, "I don't like to see you in your grandmother's shawl, for I am so awfully afraid your bad cold will mean your dropping off." "Master Alex talks nonsense," said Hannah. "You give me a start for a minute with the sort of gibberish you talk. Forty-five, be I? Well, if I be, my grandmother lived to eighty, and my grandfather to ninety; and if I take after him--and they say I have a look of him--I have another good forty-five years to hang on, so there's no fear of my dropping off for a bit longer." As these remarks of Hannah's were absolutely impossible for me to understand, I did not pursue the subject further, but I said, "Father made such a nice remark to-night!" "And whatever was that? The Professor is always chary of his talk."