"By you. It was an irreverent way to speak of you, Marian my dear, I'll admit, but there was no irreverence intended. Mrs. Caddy, once set going, launched out into an interminable list of your special virtues. There never was a girl who 'cottoned' so completely to her style of pickling and preserving; there never was a girl who so intuitively grasped the great secret of making cherry-brandy, or who so quickly perceived the shortcomings of the still-room maid in the matter. And this talk of the worthy woman's gave me an idea." "The same idea as Mrs. Caddy's?" "The same, with a difference. Mrs. Caddy's was preposterous, mine is possible. And mine is this: When Mrs. Caddy goes, let it be understood that Mrs. Ashurst has consented to superintend the Woolgreaves household. There would be nothing derogatory in the position; all with whom she would be brought in contact would take care of that; and though she would not have the least qualification for the post, poor woman--no affront to you, my dear, but she wouldn't--you would be able to keep all smooth, and take care that everything went straight." "But even such an establishment as Woolgreaves would not require two housekeepers, doctor?" "Of course it would not," said the old gentleman, pleased to see by Marian's brightening face that the proposition was not so disagreeable to her. "Of course it would not. Mrs. Ashurst would be the responsible housekeeper, while your position as companion to the young ladies could be very easily defined, and would be very readily understood. Do you like the plan?" All the details of the proposition rushed through her mind before she spoke. Home-comforts, luxury, good living, warmth, care, attention, money, or at least the command if not the possession of money, that is what it meant, instead of a wretched lodging, a starveling income, penury, and perhaps, so far as certain necessaries for her mother were concerned, want. What would they sacrifice? Not freedom--they had never had it; and if their lives were still to be passed in drudgery, it would, at all events, be better to be the drudge of a kind old man and two insignificant girls, than of a set of rackety schoolboys, as they had hitherto been. Position? No sacrifice there; the respect always paid to them was paid to them as James Ashurst's wife and daughter, and that respect they would still continue to receive. All in the village knew them, the state of their finances, the necessity of their availing themselves of any opportunity for bettering their condition which might present itself; and out of the village they had but few acquaintances, and none for whose opinion they had the least care. So Marian, with beaming eyes and heightened colour, said--