'What then? Say that she has been reared from the cradle by a nurse, a common sort of woman, as can't read or write; you can say, if Winefred does not speak as ladies should, or in other little things goes contrary to their ways, put it down to me, say that she learned those manners and speech of her nurse. But, mind you, tell them that she has good blood in her, and that whatsoever is faulty comes of me, her nurse, and of that they are to rid her.' 'I don't much like saying that, Jane. I am a woman who always speaks the truth.' 'It is the truth. I have been her nurse. I held her to my bosom and soothed her when she cried. No one else ever did that. And her father did lose his wife――that is to say, he ran away and left her. He went abroad, they told me, to the other end of the earth, and put the rolling seas between us. There is no lie about that.' 'Well, well, we shall see. I will say as little as possible.' 'You must say,' said Mrs. Marley, with her fingers knitted, embracing her knees, and looking stonily before her, 'you must say as how Winnie is accustomed always to call that low thing her mother, because she has not known any other, though that creature is not worthy of her; but you may also say that the nurse loves her'――Jane's eyelids flickered and her voice became less harsh――'loves her and worships the very ground on which she walks. You can't go too far in that, and if you will you can go further and say that it was time the child should be taken out of such degrading associations and be put with gentlefolks, for and because'――Jane threw up her head――'she has gentle blood in her, and because this was her father's wish.' The woman seemed to feel a bitter pleasure in disparaging herself. She went on: 'The child is young, and she will be unhappy at the outset, and be longing to be back with her mother, as she styles that person who brought her up. But in time she will grow out of that and make new friends, and will learn new ways, and then――then there will be a great gulf fixed between her and that common woman who was her nurse, a gulf so wide and so profound that there will be no passing from the one to the other. I must make up my mind to that. I see that it will come. But I will endure it for Winefred's sake.' Drops stood on Jane Marley's brow, and there was a fire in her eye, but no signs of unbending. 'I will do my best for her,' said Mrs. Jose. 'I will myself take Winefred to Bath――and to say the truth, I should like to see my high relations again, and have an excuse for a visit. Milk always gains a flavour from what it is set nigh. That is why you can't well have meat in a dairy. I shall come back with quite a smack of gentility.' Mrs. Jose mused. 'We must go to Lyme,' she said after a while. 'I will take her there with her trunk, thence we shall get to Dorchester, and so on by coach. It can be done.' 'When?' 'Next week.'