“I have gained the summit of my ambition. But oh, God! how I do crave for a little, real honest love and sympathy! I would give the world to be able to retire with my beautiful innocent children to some place where they could never learn that their mother is anything but one of the best and purest of women! “But how foolish I am! Why do I imagine vain things? I am quite happy – sometimes!” XI. The Recluse of Hallow Hall “Yes, ma’am,” said old Miles Galbraith to me. “Yes, I can tell you as queer a tale as here and there a one. In fact, if you find one to beat it, I’ll forego that little acknowledgment you promised me.” “Fie, Miles,” was my amused retort. “You have already received the little acknowledgement in question, and have spent part of it. So how can you forego it?” “Indeed, ma’am, it’s all right. You see, I know the little ways of ladies and gentlemen. They always pay half when they make the bargain, and the other half at the end of the story.” “H’m! you’re very cute, Miles. But it will all depend upon what you have to tell me.” “Then we’ll consider it settled, ma’am, if you please, so here goes. When I first went to be Mr Milsom’s gardener and coachman, he had quite a staff of servants in the house, for he still kept considerable company. Among these servants was Jenny Pryce, the under housemaid, as canny a girl as ever went to place, and I thought myself lucky when she promised to marry me. But Mr Wright, the butler, didn’t half like it. He was fond of her himself, and both he and the housekeeper had a lot to say about how foolish she was to promise to marry anybody whose station was so inferior to a butler’s. All the same, Jenny had her own notions on the subject, and at last she had to shut him up somewhat sharply. “When the master heard about our love affair he was very good indeed to us, and furnished the little cottage in which we live to this day. The butler was never friendly to us, and would have cleared me off the premises, if he could have done so. The master, however, soon after this, took to very queer ways. It was said that he had been crossed in love, and that he had vowed never to look in a woman’s face again. “Be that as it may, he withdrew from all society, and by degrees even ceased to walk about in his own grounds. Then he made an arrangement with his solicitor, whereby we were all put on board wages, and very liberal they were, too. Jenny came in for them as well, as she was supposed to be the master’s laundress now that she was married, though it’s mighty little washing he ever gave her to do. There was henceforth no interference in anything we did, there being certain rules prescribed by the master, and as long as we conformed to these rules we were all to keep our comfortable places.