hard, or harder, than I did. You should have seen her shabby clothes,
Luke--worn and patched, and darned and turned and twisted, yet always
looking nice upon her, somehow. She gives me more as lady's-maid here
than ever she got from Mr. Dawson then. Why, I've seen her come out of
the parlor with a few sovereigns and a little silver in her hand, that
master had just given her for her quarter's salary; and now look at
her!"

"Never you mind her," said Luke; "take care of yourself, Phoebe; that's
all you've got to do. What should you say to a public-house for you and
me, by-and-by, my girl? There's a deal of money to be made out of a
public-house."

The girl still sat with her face averted from her lover, her hands
hanging listlessly in her lap, and her pale gray eyes fixed upon the
last low streak of crimson dying out behind the trunks of the trees.

"You should see the inside of the house, Luke," she said; "it's a
tumbledown looking place enough outside; but you should see my lady's
rooms--all pictures and gilding, and great looking-glasses that stretch
from the ceiling to the floor. Painted ceilings, too, that cost hundreds
of pounds, the housekeeper told her, and all done for her."

"She's a lucky one," muttered Luke, with lazy indifference.

"You should have seen her while we were abroad, with a crowd of
gentlemen hanging about her; Sir Michael not jealous of them, only proud
to see her so much admired. You should have heard her laugh and talk
with them; throwing all their compliments and fine speeches back at
them, as it were, as if they had been pelting her with roses. She set