'I've got used to it,' the woman said baldly. Then, after a little pause, during which she made a barely audible rasping to clear her throat, 'I don't like leaving you, miss. I always remember how, that time before--the only time I was ever away from you since you was a baby--how different I found you when I came back.' 'Different, Wark?' 'Yes, miss. It seemed like you'd turned into somebody else.' 'Most people change--develope--in those years just before twenty.' 'Not like you did, miss. You gave me a deal of trouble when you was little, but it nearly broke my heart to come back and find you so quieted down and wise-like.' A flash of tears glimmered in the mistress's eyes, though her lips were smiling. 'Of course,' the maid went on, 'though you never told me about it, I know you had things to bear while I was away, or else you wouldn't have gone away from your home that time--a mere child--and tried to teach for a living.' 'It _was_ absurd of me! But whosever fault it was, it wasn't yours.' 'Yes, miss, in a way it was. I owed it to your mother not to have left you. I've never told you how I blamed myself when I heard--and I didn't wonder at you. It _was_ hard when your mother was hardly cold to see your father----' 'Yes; now that's enough, Wark. You know we never speak of that.' 'No, we've never spoken about it. And, of course, you won't need me any more like you did then. But it's looking back and remembering--it's that that's making it so hard to leave you now. But----' 'Well?' 'My friends have been talking to me.' 'About----' 'Yes, this post.' Then, almost angrily, 'I didn't try for it. It's come after me. My cousin knows the man.' 'The man who wants you to go to him as housekeeper?' Vida wrinkled her brows. Wark hadn't said 'gentleman,' who alone in her employer's experience had any need of a housekeeper. 'You mean you don't know him yourself?' 'Not yet, 'm. I know he's a market gardener, and he wants his house looked after.' 'What if he does? A market gardener won't be able to pay the wages I----' 'The wages aren't much to begin with--but he's getting along--except for the housekeeping. That's in a bad way.' 'What if it is? I never heard such nonsense. You don't want to leave me, Wark, for a market gardener you've never so much as seen;' and Miss Levering covered her discomfort by a little smiling. 'My cousin's seen him many a time. She likes him.' 'Let your cousin go, then, and keep his house for him.' 'My cousin has her own house to keep, and she's got a young baby.' 'Oh, the woman who brought her child here once?' 'Yes, 'm, the child you gave the coral beads to. My cousin has written and talked about it ever since.' 'About the beads?'