"It does not matter," said the woman quickly, "it does not matter at all. Welcome, my girl! Come in! Come in!" Then turning towards the back of the shop, "Anastasi, your niece has arrived!" Her husband started, left his loaves and came forward. He was a thin man with stooping shoulders, and a look in his eyes which reminded Mattina of her mother and made a lump come into her throat so that she could scarcely answer when he spoke to her. "Welcome, my maid, for your mother's sake," he said. "When I saw you in Poros you were so high only; now you have grown a big maid! And Kanella, and Yoryi, and their children, and the little one, are they well? How did you leave them?" "They are well," stammered Mattina, "they salute you." Her uncle Anastasi turned to his wife:-- "Demetroula," he said, "take the child in; she will be hungry; look to her while I pay Yanni for his trouble." Her aunt took Mattina into a little room which opened on the courtyard, and taking her bundle from her, pushed it under a big bed in the corner. Mattina had never seen her before. The poor do not take journeys for pleasure, or for the sake of visiting their relations. But her new aunt had a kind round face and pretty shiny brown hair which one could see quite well, as she did not wear a kerchief; and when she spoke she smiled very often, so that Mattina did not feel shy with her. "Come here to the window," she said, "and let me look better at you. Ah, yes; it is your poor father that your face brings back to one, not your mother at all. Now, my girl," and she let her hand fall on Mattina's shoulder as she spoke, "let us say things clearly! You did well to come, and it is with joy that your uncle and I would keep you to live here with us. How should it not be so, since God has given us no children? A piece of bread and a mattress there would always be for you. But we are poor people, and, ... that would be all; so it would be a sin to keep you with us. It is myself I injure when I say this, for you would be a great help to me in the house. But that you should work, and get only your bread for it!--no, that must not be! We have spoken with your uncle, and he thinks as I do. What do you say also? Do you not wish to earn money?" "Yes, my aunt." "Well, then, see what good luck you have! We thought that not till September could a house be found, but only yesterday the boy from the grocer's round the street, told me that his brother who works for a butcher in the Piræus Road, knows a house where they are looking for a serving maid. It is a good house, he says, where they buy meat every day; there are only two small children, and the master has a shop of his own in the big street of shops. The lady, he said, prefers a girl from the islands who has not as yet served, and she will give ten drachmæ[12] a month and dress her. So that you will have naught to spend and we can put all your money in the People's Bank for you. Will not that be well?" "Yes, my aunt."