for him; think how I’ve worked for him!” she said. “He would never be where he is now if it wasn’t for me. Does he think his new fancy will plan for him and plot for him, and risk--”

“Hush, hush--don’t speak so loud! Where’s your old discretion, Sally?”

“Let him look for discretion in Miss Baby, with her round face and her child’s eyes. Does he think he can make use of her? Nonsense! It wants a woman that’s strong in her head and strong in her limbs to do the work he wants done, and not a soft little chit like that!”

“Depend upon it, however useful she might be, he would never compare her services with yours, Sally. He is only amusing himself with this little simpleton,” the man said soothingly.

But she interrupted him in a tone of half-suppressed savagery that made me shudder, out of her sight though I was.

“Amusing himself, do you say? Only amusing himself! Looking at her, talking to her, not because he wants to make use of her, but because he likes her, loves her”--she hissed--“as he has never loved any of his poor tools, though they were handsomer a thousand times than this wretched girl! If I thought that, if I really believed that, he’d find me more than his match for once. I’d spoil her beauty for her, and for him, if I hanged for it!”

Oh, what an awful woman! And all because poor little Jane was younger and prettier than herself, and had had the misfortune--for it was indeed a misfortune--to attract the attention of her unprincipled lover!

The man spoke again, this time very gravely. I had to listen with all my attention to hear him, for they had now passed the place where I sat.

“Sally, don’t do anything foolish,” said he. “Jim isn’t a fool, and he knows how to repay services like yours, though he may be a trifle harsh sometimes. Why, he might have thrown you over with the rest when--”

I could hear no more; they had gone too far. I waited till their voices had died away, and then dashed from my perch, through the plantation and the hall, up to my room, as fast as I could, locked the door, and sat down appalled.

What a terrible tragedy in the servants’ hall we were likely to have if things went on like this! If Mrs. Rayner had been only a woman, not a statue, I would have confessed all to her; but, as she was, it would do no good. It was not the sort of thing I could 

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