mind. You had better go to your room and try to recover your senses. If I
can't have things in this house to suit me, I'll have no one in it. Here,
Jane, you can help."

Mrs. Mumpson put her handkerchief to her eyes and departed. She felt that
this display of emotion would touch Holcroft's feelings when he came to think
the scene all over.

Having kindled the fire, he said to Jane, "You and Mrs. Wiggins get some
coffee and supper in short order, and have it ready when I come in," and he
hastened out to care for his horses. If the old woman was slow, she knew just
how to make every motion effective, and a good supper was soon ready.

"Why didn't you keep up a fire, Jane?" Holcroft asked.

"She wouldn't let me. She said how you must be taught a lesson," replied the
girl, feeling that she must choose between two potentates, and deciding
quickly in favor of the farmer. She had been losing faith in her mother's
wisdom a long time, and this night's experience had banished the last shred of
it.

Some rather bitter words rose to Holcroft's lips, but he restrained them. He
felt that he ought not to disparage the mother to the child. As Mrs. Wiggins
grew warm, and imbibed the generous coffee, her demeanor thawed perceptibly
and she graciously vouchsafed the remark, "Ven you're hout late hag'in hi'll
look hafter ye."

Mrs. Mumpson had not been so far off as not to hear Jane's explanation, as the
poor child found to her cost when she went up to bed.