'Let me speak. My heart is bursting. I shall die if you interrupt. You say that I am a violent woman, unfit to be with other servants, impossible in a house. Try me. Let me be near her, and you shall see. You will find me docile and meek. I will give no offence. I will do nothing, nothing to render myself unendurable. You say I am a raging fire. I have been, I am now but a heap of grey ash with one spark in it――my love for Winefred. Let me smoulder away where she can breathe on the spark; it will only flame into more love for her. I ask no more. I will be speechless in your house if you will――but see her I must. I must look on her, as she moves, like a lady that she is――but I will not approach her to soil her with my touch. Only now and then, when there be none to see, let me kiss the tip of her fingers. I will go down on my knees to ask for this――but I will take nothing less.' Her voice was hoarse with emotion. 'Part from her I will not.' 'Mother,' interposed Winefred, 'I have a word to say. My father had not the purpose that you attribute to him. He spoke no word about it. He never hinted at any such thing. There has been a mistake somewhere. You are hard upon him, too hard. He has been indulgent to me, he could not have been more kind. Whenever he has spoken of you, it has been with a tremble in his voice, and I know that his heart has been full. I do not believe that he has ever forgotten you, ever ceased to love you. Now, dear mother, set your mind at rest. Parted we shall not be, and in token of that I will go home with you to-morrow.' Mr. Holwood came hesitatingly forward and raised his hand in deprecation. 'There is no occasion,' said Mrs. Marley. 'I have seen you. That suffices. Stay on. You are learning much here.' 'Mother, I also have a longing to be with you――if for a few weeks only. I have spent some little time with my father. It is right that now I should be with you. If he loves me, and he finds that he also cannot do without me, then he will come to Bindon Undercliff and fetch me thence, to take me back to Bath.' Then Winefred put her arms round her mother and kissed her. 'How you love me!' she said. She disengaged herself, and putting her arms round the neck of her father she said: 'And you, father, have come to love me.' 'Yes.' 'Surely, father, if you love me; and you, mother, if you also love me, you cannot hate each other.' CHAPTER XL WANTED――CHOUGHS Winefred had returned to the cottage on the Undercliff along with her mother. Her departure had been hurried. She had spoken a few words to Mrs. Tomkin-Jones in explanation of her departure, and had promised to return in a fortnight.