us what she's after; mark my word, you'll see. If that brazen face
means nothing, then I'm stone-blind.'

After Jim's marriage Esther continued to manage the house and the
dairy, leaving the cooking to her sister-in-law and the needlework
to her mother. Soon after five o'clock on a bright summer morning
the labourer going to his work heard the unbarring of Mrs. Sutton's
shutters and the withdrawal of bolts. The casement windows and the
door were then flung open, and Esther generally came into the
doorway and for a few minutes faced the sun. She did not shut
herself up. She walked the village like a queen, and no Fen farmer
or squireling ventured to jest with her. Mrs. Jarvis could not be
brought to admit her stone-blindness and clung to the theory of
somebody in London; but as Esther never went to London, and nobody
from London came to her, and the postmistress swore no letters
passed between London and the Sutton family, Mrs. Jarvis became a
little distrusted, although some of her acquaintances believed her
predictions with greater firmness as they remained unfulfilled. 'I
don't care what you may say; don't tell me,' was her reply to
sceptical objections, and it carried great weight.

Esther died of the Blackdeep fever in the fifth year after she came
home. As soon as he received the news of her death Mr. Craggs
married Mrs. Perkins, who had been twelve months a widow, was
admitted into partnership, and is now one of the most respected men
in the City.



KATE RADCLIFFE