“Pollie, do you really think I would not at once have told you of any possible change which, if it occurred, might interfere with you?” asked Mrs. Challoner. “Legal notices are necessary between everybody, strangers or friends; but full and timely warning beforehand is surely due from those who have been long associated. Don’t you feel you would have had this if change had threatened from my side?” “I don’t know, m’m,” said Pollie rather sullenly. “Ladies don’t always think of those things. Girls have to look after themselves.” “But I am certain you would have felt hurt,” said Mrs. Challoner. “If not, you can have never had much regard for me or confidence in me.” Pollie began to cry. “I ain’t leaving you to go to another place, m’m,” she said. “I’d never have done that. I’ve been tempted, though you’ve never heard of it. ‘Wages isn’t everything,’ I’ve always answered. But this is different.” “Of course it is, Pollie,” Mrs. Challoner responded patiently. “But I am the more taken by surprise because I never dreamed you had a lover. I hope you are not doing anything rashly, Pollie.” “Oh, he hasn’t been any lover; but I’ve known him long enough!” gasped Pollie. “I didn’t know as he thought anything about me. Only when I said to him I thought there would be changes an’ I’d never take another London service, he ups and speaks out, thinking, I suppose, that I’d go away and he’d lose me altogether. And at Christmas he gets a week’s holiday, and that’s why we’ll be married then and go down to Leeds to see his mother. ‘We’ll get it over,’ says he, ‘and do the courtin’ afterwards.’ I’m sure there’s been none yet,” Pollie added with a dash of feminine scorn. “Well, Pollie, you know I am sorry to part from you, and it is sadder still when we have just been through so much anxiety together. But I hope you’ll be happy. I wish you had told me about it yourself. It is hard to hear such things from other people.” “Other people might mind their own business, m’m,” said Pollie, with some spirit. “There’s some people who are a deal too busy with their tongues.” “But they only told the truth,” Mrs. Challoner suggested. “If they hadn’t had no truth to tell, they’d have had a say about something or ’nother, I guess!” cried Pollie, heaping up negatives in her flurry. “Well, Pollie,” said her mistress, “all I have now to ask is that you will not mention your leaving to your master—at least, at present. You can understand that we must keep all worry from him while he is regaining strength. In a day or two I will tell you my special reason for asking this silence.”