Winifred looked up wearily as these words were spoken. She had grown tall and pale since we last saw her in the avenue at Holford Hall, and the expression of her face wears more of sadness, but there are the same clear-cut features, the same large, steadfast gray eyes and marked eyebrows which first attracted Lady Peckham's attention to the child in the Blue-school at Holford. But the window where she now sits and strains her sight to catch the last daylight looks not into the farm closes, but into such a narrow lane that the opposite neighbors could almost shake hands across it. For Master Simon Evans lives near the water-side for the convenience of his business. And even the dog-carts used in the wider streets of Bristol cannot pass each other in Fish Lane. [Illustration: "Here is that child, poring over her book again, wasting her precious time and eyesight."] Winifred looked up wearily as the shrill voice of reproach sounded over her head. The speaker was a sharp, energetic-looking woman who seemed to have worked off every inch of superfluous flesh and to have nothing left but bone and muscle. "I have finished all the sewing you laid out, aunt, and I have carried home Mrs. Bowler's kerchiefs, and put the money in your box. The children are in bed and asleep, and I thought I might read a little while." "And how much did Mrs. Bowler pay you, child? She ought to give you a good price." "Forty shillings for the kerchiefs, aunt, and ten for the apron." "Well, well! It is a fair price, but they are well worth every farthing of it!" said Dame Evans, slightly mollified. "I will say for you that there is not a person in Bristol who can do cut-work and satin-stitch equal to yourself. But you might have taken your knitting, child, if you had nothing else to do. Reading is nothing but a waste of time for folks like us, except upon Sundays and holidays, when we can do nothing else." "And, aunt, I saw Lady Corbet at Mrs. Bowler's, and she wishes me to come to her house every day to teach her daughters and oversee their work. I am to take my meals with the young ladies and walk out with them, and she will give me ten shillings a week. I am to begin to-morrow if you are willing." "Laws me!" exclaimed Dame Evans, quite dazzled at the prospect of such an honor. "What a fine thing for you! Why, they are the richest people in Bristol. Sir John entertained his late blessed majesty when he visited the city, and was knighted on that occasion. I have heard my Lady Corbet was cousin to old Lord Carew." Winifred's heart gave a bound at this news. Might she not, through Lady Corbet, obtain some news of Lady Peckham and Arthur? It was nearly three years since she had heard anything of Arthur, but she had never once forgotten to pray for him, night and morning. "You are willing to have me go then, aunt?"