CHAPTER IV

MISS JONES


I


The coming of the new year meant the going of the Jampot, and the
going of the Jampot meant the breaking of a life-time's traditions.
The departure was depressing and unsettling; the weather was--as it
always is during January in Glebeshire--at its worst, and the
Jampot, feeling it all very deeply, maintained a terrible Spartan
composure, which was meant to show indifference and a sense of
injustice. She had to the very last believed it incredible that she
should really go. She had been in the old Orange Street house for
eight years, and had intended to be there until she died. She was
forced to admit that Master Jeremy was going beyond her; but in
September he would go to school, and then she could help with the
sewing and other things about the house. The real truth of the
matter was that she had never been a very good servant, having too
much of the Glebeshire pride and independence and too little of the
Glebeshire fidelity.

Mrs. Cole had been glad of the opportunity that Hamlet's arrival in
the family had given her. The Jampot, only a week before the date of
her departure, came to her mistress and begged, with floods of
tears, to be allowed to continue in her service. But Mrs. Cole, with