CHAPTER IX.
MR. TALLBOYS' VISITOR.
Mr. Withers was fully justified in his conviction that there need beno doubt as to the view Mabel would take of the Miss Penfold's offer.The girl had hitherto been in entire ignorance both as to the willbeing missing, and of the interest she had in it. She was now calledin from the garden, and was much surprised when her father told her tosit down, as he and her mother wished to have a serious talk with her.
"Do you know, my little Mabel," he began, "that you have had a narrowescape of being an heiress?"
"An heiress, papa! Do you mean of having a lot of money?"
"Yes, of coming in some day to a fortune. Mr. Penfold some time agoconfided to your mother and me his intention of dividing his propertyequally between Ralph Conway and yourself."
"What! all the Penfold estates, papa, and the house and everything?"
"Yes, my dear. Everything, including the large sum of money that hasaccumulated during the years Mr. Penfold has not been spending a thirdof his income."
"Then if he meant that, papa, how is it that I am not going to be anheiress?"
"Simply, my dear, because the will by which Mr. Penfold left theproperty to you and Ralph is missing."
Mr. Withers then told the whole story of the loss of the will, thesearch that had been made for it, and the strong grounds there werefor believing in the existence of some secret place in the Hall, andthat this place of concealment was known to Mr. Penfold's sisters.
"But they surely could never be so wicked as that, papa. They havealways seemed to like me--not very much, you know, because theythought I wasn't quiet and ladylike enough. Still I don't think theyreally disliked me."
"No, I think in their way they liked you, Mabel; and perhaps if Mr.Penfold had half left his property to you, divided the other halfbetween them the will would have been found. But they certainly didnot like Ralph Conway. They disliked him partly no doubt for himself,but principally on account of a wrong which I believe they once did tohis mother. Now, it is in human nature, Mabel, that you may forgive awrong done to you, but it is very hard to forgive a person you havewronged. Anyhow, I am convinced that it was more to prevent Mrs.Conway's son from getting this money than to get it themselves thatthey have concealed this will, or rather that they refuse to point outits place of concealment."
"But it does seem hard, papa, that Mr. Penfold should have lefteverything to Ralph and me and nothing to his sisters."
"The Miss Penfolds have a very comfortable income of their own, Mabel,and their brother might very well have thought there was no occasionfor them to have more; beside, although they lived in his house, andindeed managed it and him, Mr. Penfold had, I know, strong reason tobelieve that they had ruined his life. But this is a matter into whichwe need not go. Well, Mabel, the Miss Penfolds have just given a proofthat they do not dislike you. Now I will read you this letter, becauseI think you ought to know it has been written, and I will then tellyou the reasons why your mother and I think that the offer cannot beaccepted."
Mabel listened in silence until her father had finished the argumentshe had used with his wife, with the exception only of that relating tothe Miss Penfolds' motives in putting in the condition concerningMabel's marriage. When he ceased speaking she exclaimed indignantly,"Of course, papa, we could not take the money, not if it were tentimes as much! Why, we could not look Mrs. Conway and Ralph in theface again! Beside, how could we speak to people one believes to havedone such a wicked thing?"
"Very well, Mabel. I was quite sure that you would agree with us, butat the same time I thought it was right before we refused the offeryou should know that it was made. Whatever our sentiments on thesubject might be, we should not have been justified in refusingwithout your knowledge an offer that might, from a worldly point ofview, be your interest to accept."
"Why, papa," Mabel said, "I would rather go out and weed turnips orwatch sheep, like some of the girls in the village, than touch a pennyof the Miss Penfolds' money."
A short time after this Mr. Tallboys' clerk brought a letter into hisprivate office.
"A lady asked me to give you this, sir." The solicitor opened it. Itcontained only a card.
"Show the lady in. How are you, madam? I am glad to have the pleasureof making your acquaintance. I suppose you are staying with Mr.Withers?"
"No, Mr. Tallboys, I am at the hotel here. I only arrived an hoursince by the packet from Dover."
"Dear me. I am afraid you have had a very unpleasant voyage."
"It has not been pleasant," Mrs. Conway said quietly. "But I preferredit to the long journey by coach up to London, and down here again. Wewere five days on the way, as the vessel put in at so many ports.Still that was quite a minor question with me. I wanted to see you andhave a talk with you personally. There is no saying into whose handsletters may fall, and one talk face to face does more good than ascore of letters."
Mr. Tallboys looked rather surprised, and the idea flashed across hismind that the only business Mrs. Conway could want to see him aboutmust be some proposal for raising money upon the security of herannuity.
"I presume, Mr. Tallboys, from what I hear, that you are as thoroughlyconvinced as I am myself that this will of Mr. Penfold's is inexistence, and is hidden somewhere about the Hall?"
"Yes, I think so, Mrs. Conway. That is, supposing it has not beendestroyed."
"Do you think it likely that it has been destroyed, Mr. Tallboys?"
"Well, that I cannot say," the solicitor said gravely. "I have, ofcourse, thought much over this matter. It is one that naturally vexedme much for several reasons. In the first place, Mr. Withers and youyourself had been good enough to place the matter in my hands, and toauthorize me to act for you, and it is always a sort of vexation to aprofessional man when his clients lose their cause, especially when heis convinced that they are in the right. In the second place, I ammuch disturbed that the wishes of my late client, Mr. Penfold, shouldnot have been carried out. Thirdly, I feel now that I myself amsomewhat to blame in the matter, in that I did not represent to Mr.Penfold the imprudence of his placing valuable papers in a placewhere, should anything happen to him suddenly, they might not befound. Of course I could not have anticipated this hostile action onthe part of the Miss Penfolds. Still, I blame myself that I did notwarn Mr. Penfold of the possibility of what has in fact happenedtaking place. Lastly," and he smiled, "I have a personal feeling inthe matter. I have lost a business that added somewhat considerably tomy income."
"I don't think any of us have thought of blaming you in the matter,Mr. Tallboys. I am sure that I have not. You could not possibly haveforeseen that Mr. Penfold's sisters were likely to turn out thieves."
"Well, that is rather a strong expression, Mrs. Conway; though naturalenough I must admit in your position as Mr. Ralph Conway's mother. Yousee, there is a difference between concealing and not disclosing. Mr.Penfold himself concealed the will. The Miss Penfolds simply refuse toassist us in our search for it."
"And as the nearest heirs take possession of the property."
"Quite so, Mrs. Conway. I am not defending their conduct, whichmorally is dishonest in the extreme, but I doubt whether any court oflaw would find it to be a punishable offense."
"Well, now, Mr. Tallboys, I want you to let me know whether yoususpect that they have destroyed the will; which, I suppose, would bea punishable offense."
"Certainly the destruction of the will, in order that those whodestroyed might get possession of property, would be criminal. Well, Idon't know; I have thought it over in every sense, and think thebalance of probability is against their having destroyed it. In thefirst place the Miss Penfolds doubtless consider that the will is sosecurely hidden there is little, if any, chance of its beingdiscovered. That this is so we know, from the fact that although Iransacked the house from top to bottom, pulled down wainscoting,lifted floors, and tried every imaginable point which either I or themen who were working with me suspected to be a likely spot for ahiding-place, we did
not succeed in finding it.
"Now, I have noticed that ladies have at times somewhat peculiar ideasas to morality, and are apt to steer very close to the wind. The MissPenfolds may consider themselves perfectly justified in declining togive us any assistance in finding the will, soothing their consciencesby the reflection that by such refusal they are committing no offenseof which the law takes cognizance; but while doing this they mightshrink from the absolutely criminal offense of destroying the will. Ido not say that now they have entered upon the path they have thatthey would not destroy the will if they thought there was a chance ofits being discovered. I only say that, thinking it to be absolutelysafe, they are unlikely to perform an act which, if discovered, wouldbring them under the power of the law.
"They may consider themselves free to believe, or if not actually tobelieve, to try and convince themselves, that for aught they knowtheir brother may have destroyed the will, and that it is not for themto prove whether he did so or not. Upon these grounds, therefore, itseems to me probable that the will is still in existence; but Iacknowledge that so far as its utility is concerned it might as wellhave been destroyed by Mr. Penfold himself or by his sisters."
"Well, Mr. Tallboys, no doubt you are thinking that you might as wellhave expressed this opinion to me on paper, and that I have troubledmyself very unnecessarily in making this journey to have it from yourown lips."
"Well, yes, Mrs. Conway, I do not deny that this was in my mind."
"It would have been useless for me to make the journey had this beenall, Mr. Tallboys. I am very glad to have heard your opinion, whichagrees exactly with that which I myself have formed, but it wasscarcely with the object of eliciting it that I have made thisjourney. We will now proceed to that part of the subject. We agreethat the will is probably still in existence, and that it is hiddensomewhere about the Hall. The next question is, how is it to befound?"
"Ah! that is a very difficult question indeed, Mrs. Conway."
"Yes, it is difficult, but not, I think, impossible. You have doneyour best, Mr. Tallboys, and have failed. You have no furthersuggestion to offer, no plan that occurs to you by which you mightdiscover it?"
"None whatever," Mr. Tallboys said decidedly. "I have done all that Icould do; and have, in fact, dismissed the question altogether from mymind. I had the authority of the court to search, and I have searchedvery fully, and have reported my failure to the court. The power tosearch would certainly not be renewed unless upon some very stronggrounds indeed."
"I suppose not, Mr. Tallboys; that is what I expected. Well, it seemsto me that you having done all in your power for us, your clients, andhaving now relinquished your search, it is time for us, or some of us,to take the matter in hand."'
Mr. Tallboys looked surprised.
"I do not quite understand, Mrs. Conway, how you can take it in hand."
"No? Well, I can tell you, Mr. Tallboys, that I am going to do so. Iam not going to sit down quietly and see my son robbed of hisinheritance. I have quite made up my mind to devote my life to thismatter, and I have come, not to ask your advice--for I dare say youwould try to dissuade me, and my resolution is unalterable--but to askyou to give me what aid you can in the matter."
"I shall be glad to give you aid in any way, Mrs. Conway, if you willpoint out to me the direction in which my assistance can be of use. Isuppose you have formed some sort of plan, for I own that I can see nodirection whatever in which you can set about the matter."
"My intention is, Mr. Tallboys, to search for this hiding-placemyself."
Mr. Tallboys raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"To search yourself, Mrs. Conway! But how do you propose to gainadmittance to the Hall, and how, even supposing that you gainadmittance, do you propose to do more than we have done, or even somuch; because any fresh disturbance of the fabric of the house wouldbe out of the question?"
"That I quite admit. Still we know there is the hiding-place, and itis morally certain that that hiding-place is opened or approached bythe touching of some secret spring. It is not by pulling downwainscoting or by pulling up floors, or by force used in any way, thatit is to be found. Mr. Penfold, it would seem, used it habitually as adepository for papers of value. He certainly, therefore, had not tobreak down or to pull up anything. He opened it as he would open anyother cabinet or cupboard, by means of a key or by touching a spring.You agree with me so far, Mr. Tallboys?"
"Certainly, Mrs. Conway. There can be no doubt in my mind that thishiding-place, whether a chamber or a small closet, is opened in theway you speak of."
"Very well then; all that has to be looked for is a spring. No forceis requisite; all that is to be done is to find the spring."
"Yes, but how is it to be found? I believe we tried every square footof the building."
"I have no doubt you did, but it will be necessary to try every squareinch, I will not say of the whole building, but of certain rooms andpassages. I think we may assume that it is not in the upper rooms orservants' quarters. Such a hiding-place would be contrived where itcould be used by the owners of the house without observation fromtheir dependants, and would therefore be either in the drawing-room,dining-room, the principal bed-chambers, or the passages, corridors,or stairs between or adjoining these."
"I quite follow you in your reasoning, Mrs. Conway, and agree withyou. Doubtless, the place is so situated as to be what I may callhandy to the owners of the Hall, but I still do not see how you aregoing to set about finding it."
"I am going to set about it by going to live at the Hall."
"Going to live at the Hall, Mrs. Conway! But how is that possibleunder the circumstances? You are, I should say, the last person whomthe Miss Penfolds would at present invite to take up her residencethere."
"I agree with you, if they had any idea of my identity; but that isjust what I intend they shall not have. My plan is to go there in thecapacity of a servant. Once there I shall examine, as I say, everysquare inch of the rooms and places where this hiding-place is likelyto exist. Every knob, knot, or inequality of any kind in the wood-workand stone-work shall be pressed, pulled, and twisted, until I find it.I am aware that the task may occupy months or even years, for, ofcourse, my opportunities will be limited. Still, whether months oryears, I intend to undertake it and to carry it through, if my life isspared until I have had time thoroughly and completely to carry itout."
Mr. Tallboys was silent from sheer astonishment.
"Do you realty mean that you think of going there as a servant, Mrs.Conway?"
"Certainly I do," she replied calmly. "I suppose the work will be noharder for me than for other women; and whereas they do it for someten or twelve pounds a year I shall do it for a fortune. I see not theslightest difficulty or objection in that part of the business. Ishall, of course, let my house at Dover, making arrangements for myson's letters there being forwarded, and for my letters to him beingposted in Dover. I shall have the satisfaction that while engaged uponthis work my income will be accumulating for his benefit. I own that Ican see no difficulty whatever in my plan being carried out.
"Now, as to the assistance that I wish you to give me. It could,perhaps, have been more readily given by Mr. Withers, for naturally hewould know personally most of the servants of the Hall, as themajority of them doubtless belong to the village. But Mr. Withers, asa clergyman, might have conscientious scruples against taking any partin a scheme which, however righteous its ends, must be conducted bywhat he would consider underground methods, and involving a certainamount of deceit. At any rate, I think it better that neither he norMrs. Withers should have any complicity whatever in my plans. Itherefore come to you. What I want, in the first place, is to find outwhen a vacancy is likely to be caused by some servant leaving;secondly, if no such vacancy is likely to occur, for a vacancy to bemanufactured by inducing some servant to leave--a present of a year'swages would probably accomplish that; thirdly, the vacancy must occurin the case of some servant whose work would naturally lie in the partof the building
I have to examine; finally, it must be arranged that Ican be so recommended as to insure my getting the place."
Mr. Tallboys was silent for some time.
"Certainly your plan does appear feasible, Mrs. Conway," he said atlength. "It does seem to me that if once installed in the way youpropose at the Hall, and prepared to spend, as you say, months or evenyears in the search, it is possible and even probable that in the endyou may light upon the spring that will open this mystery. You must beprepared to face much unpleasantness. You will have for all this timeto associate with servants, to do menial work, to relinquish all theluxuries and appliances to which you have all your life beenaccustomed, and possibly to fail at last. Still, if you are preparedto face all this, there does appear to me to be a possibility of yourenterprise being crowned with success."
"I have thought it all over, Mr. Tallboys, and am quite prepared tosubmit to all the sacrifices you mention, which, however, willscarcely be felt by me to be sacrifices, working, as I shall be, forthe future of my son. And now, can I rely upon your assistance?"
"You shall have any assistance I can give, assuredly, Mrs. Conway. Thematter is by no means a simple one, still I can see no reason why itshould not be successfully carried out."
"It must take time, that I quite anticipate, Mr. Tallboys. Time,fortunately, is of no consequence."
"Well, Mrs. Conway," Mr. Tallboys said, after sitting for some minutesin thought, "it is a matter that will require careful thinking over.How long do you intend staying here?"
"Just as long as it is necessary," Mrs. Conway said, "a day or amonth. I have not given my own name at the 'George,' but shall beknown there as Mrs. Brown. As you saw, I sent my card in in anenvelope, so that even your clerk should not be aware that Mrs. Conwaywas in Weymouth."
"But," the solicitor said suddenly, "surely the Miss Penfolds knew youin the old time?"
"Certainly, they did. But, to begin with, that is nearly twenty yearsago; and, of course, I have changed very much since then."
"Not very much, Mrs. Conway," the lawyer said; "for I once had thepleasure of seeing you when I went to the Hall to see Mr. Penfold onbusiness. I do not say that I should have known you anywhere, buthaving had your card I remembered you at once when you came into theroom; and, indeed, if you will excuse my saying so, you might passanywhere as thirty."
"So much the better for my purpose at present," Mrs. Conway replied."Thirty will do very well for the age of a housemaid at the Hall. Ishould imagine the Miss Penfolds would prefer a woman of that age to ayoung girl; beside, you see, I must be an upper housemaid in order tohave charge of the part of the house I want to examine. As to knowingme, in the first place the Miss Penfolds will not have the advantageof receiving my card, and, in the second place, it is not verydifficult for a woman to alter her appearance so as to beunrecognizable by another who has not seen her for twenty years. Myhair is a good deal darker now than it was then, and I wore italtogether differently. A little black dye on that and my eyebrows, aservant's cap and gown, will so alter me that you who see me now wouldhardly know me; certainly they will not do so. You need not troubleabout that, Mr. Tallboys; I will answer for it that they shall notknow me. It is possible, just possible, that Mr. and Mrs. Withersmight know me if they saw me in church; but I shall, without lettingthem know my plans, guard against any indiscretion. Now, as we havequite settled the matter, Mr. Tallboys, I shall go back to the inn,and when you have thought the matter over and decided upon the bestplan for carrying out my wishes, you will send a note to Mrs. Brown atthe 'George,' making an appointment for me to meet you here."
Mr. Tallboys sat for some time in thought after Mrs. Conway had lefthim. It was certainly a daring scheme, requiring no little courage,resolution, and self-possession to carry out, but his client evidentlypossessed all these qualities. She had a clear head, and seemed tohave grasped every point in the matter. There was really no reason whyshe should not succeed. There must be a spring somewhere, and if shewas as patient as she declared herself to be, she would surely find itsooner or later; that is, if she could carry out her search withoutexciting suspicion.
The first difficulty was to get her settled at the Hall. What was thebest way to set about that? It certainly was not as easy as she seemedto think, still there must be some way of managing it. At any rate hemust act cautiously in the matter, and must not appear in it in anyway personally. And so he sat thinking, until at last the clerk, whohad been a good deal surprised at receiving no instruction from him asto several matters he had in hand, knocked at the door, and came inwith a number of papers, and Mr. Tallboys was obliged to dismiss thematter from his mind for a time, and to attend to present business.The very next morning Mrs. Conway received the note, and again went tothe office.
"Do you know, Mrs. Conway," he began, as soon as his client entered,"the more I think over the matter, the more I feel that it isextremely difficult to manage it from here. I should have to engagesome one to go over in the first place. He would have to stay in thevillage some time before he could make the acquaintance of theservants at the Hall. He would have to get very intimate with thembefore he could venture to broach such a thing for if he made amistake, and the woman told her mistress that some one had been tryingto persuade her to leave in order to introduce another into the place,their suspicions would be so aroused that the scheme would becomehopeless."
"Yes, I see the difficulty, Mr. Tallboys; for I thought it over inevery way before I came to you. Beside I don't like the thought ofthis intermediate. No doubt you would choose a trustworthy man. StillI don't like the thought of any one knowing the secret, especially asthe plan may take so long working out."
"What I have been thinking, Mrs. Conway is this. No doubt the servantsat the Hall have taken sides on this matter. Of course from oursearches there they know that Mr. Penfold's will is missing, and thatit is because it is missing that the Miss Penfolds are now mistressesthere. Without knowing anything myself about the feelings of theservants there, beyond what would probably be the case from thedifference of character between Mr. Penfold and his sisters, I shouldimagine that they were fond of him, for he was the kindest and mosteasy-going of masters, and not very fond of his sisters, who are, as Ihave always observed in the course of my professional visits there,the reverse of agreeable.
"If this is the case, not improbably there may be one or other ofthese women with whom you might open direct negotiations. What hasstruck me is this. The men who were over there with me of course sleptand took their meals in the village; still, going about as they did inthe house, no doubt they talked with the servants. The Miss Penfoldswere away, and I dare say the women had plenty of time to gossip; andit is probable the men gathered from their talk something of theirsentiments toward the Miss Penfolds and their brother, and which sidethey would be likely to go with. I might ask the foreman about it."
"I think the idea is a capital one, Mr. Tallboys; but there is onedetail I think might be improved. I imagine that if instead of askingthe foreman you choose the youngest and best-looking of the men,provided he is unmarried, you are more likely to get at the women'ssentiments."
Mr. Tallboys laughed. "No doubt you are right, Mrs. Conway. That shallbe done. I must get the foreman first, though, for I don't know thenames or addresses of the other men. I shall tell him frankly that Iwant to find out the opinions of the servants at the Hall about themissing will, ask him which of his men was the most given to gossipwith them, and tell him to send him here to me at ten o'clockto-morrow morning; then when you see him and hear what he has to say,you can judge for yourself how far you care to trust him in thematter, or whether to trust him at all. Perhaps you will come here afew minutes before ten, and then I can tell you what the foreman hassaid first."
Accordingly at a quarter to ten the next day Mrs. Conway was again atthe office.
"I think, Mrs. Conway, that things are going even better than wehoped. The foreman said that from what little talk he had with theservants, he thought they had all been attached t
o Mr. Penfold, andthat his sisters were by no means popular among them. He said veryoften one or other of them would come into the room where they wereworking and make suggestions, and hunt about themselves to see if theycould find anything. But the best part of it is that one of thecarpenters, a steady fellow of twenty-five, took up, as he calls it,with the upper housemaid, and he believes there is a talk about theirbeing married some day. If this is so it would be the very thing foryou. You could help him to get married, and the girl could help you toget her place."
"The very thing," Mrs. Conway said. "Nothing could have turned outbetter."
In a few minutes the young carpenter arrived. He was apleasant-looking young fellow, and Mrs. Conway was not surprised atthe impression he had made upon the housemaid at the Hall.
"Sit down, Johnson," Mr. Tallboys began. "You know what I asked you tocome here for?"
"Mr. Peters told me that it was something to do with that job we hadat the Miss Penfolds', sir."
"Yes, that is it, Johnson. You know we were looking for a missing willthere?"
"Yes, sir; so I understood."
"Now, what we wanted to ask you specially, Johnson, was whether youcan tell us what the servants at the Hall thought about it?"
The young carpenter turned rather red in the face, and twisted his capabout in his fingers.
"Well, sir, I don't know that I can say much about that. I don't thinkmost of them was overfond of the Miss Penfolds, and wouldn't have beensorry if the will had been found that would have given them anothermaster or mistress."
"Just so, Johnson, that is what I thought was likely. Now, the point Iwant to know, Johnson, and this lady here is, I may tell you,interested in the matter of this will being found, is as to whetherthere is in your opinion any one of the maids at the Hall who could betrusted to aid us in this business? Of course we should make it worthher while to do so."
Again the young carpenter colored, and fidgeted on his chair,examining his cap intently.
"I suppose it would depend on what you wanted her to do," he said atlast. "The Hall is a good service, though they don't like themistresses, and of course none of them would like to do anything thatmight risk their place."
"That's natural enough, Johnson. But, you see, we could perhaps morethan make up to her for that risk."
"Well, I don't know, sir," the man said after another pause. "It isn'tonly the place; but, you see, a young woman wouldn't like to riskgetting into a row like and being turned away in disgrace, or perhapseven worse. I don't know what you want, you see, sir?"
Mr. Tallboys looked at Mrs. Conway, and his eyes expressed thequestion, How far shall we go? She replied by taking the matter in herown hands.
"We can trust you, can't we, whether you agree to help us or not?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said more decidedly than he had hitherto spoken. "Youcan trust me. If you tell me what you want, I will tell you straightwhether I can do anything. If I don't like it, the matter shan't gobeyond me."
"Very well, then, I will tell you exactly what we want. We believethat the will is still there, and we believe that if some one in thehouse were to make a thorough search it might be found. It is rightthat it should be found, and that the property should go to those towhom Mr. Penfold left it, and who are now being kept out of it by theMiss Penfolds. I am very much interested in the matter, because it ismy son who is being cheated out of his rights; and I have made up mymind to find the will. Now, what I want to know is, do you think thatone of the housemaids would be willing to give up her place andintroduce me as her successor, if I gave her twenty-five pounds? Thatwould be a nice little sum, you know, to begin housekeeping with."
Mrs. Conway saw at once by the expression of the young carpenter'sface that she had secured him as an ally.
"I think that might be managed, ma'am," he said in a tone that showedher he was endeavoring to hide his gladness. "Yes, I think that couldbe managed. There is certainly a young woman at the Hall--" and hestopped.
Mrs. Conway helped him. "I may tell you, Mr. Johnson, that the foremanhinted to Mr. Tallboys that he thought you and the upper housemaidwere likely one of these days to come together, and that isprincipally why we spoke to you instead of to one of the others whowere there. We thought, you see, that she might probably be leavingher place one of these days, and that perhaps this twenty-five poundsmight enable you and her to marry earlier than you otherwise wouldhave done. In that case, you see, it would suit us all. You and shewould, moreover, have the satisfaction of knowing that you were aidingto right a great wrong, and to restore to those who have beendefrauded the property Mr. Penfold intended for them. What do yousay?"
"Well, ma'am, I think that, as you say, it would be doing the rightthing; and I don't deny that Martha and I have agreed to wait a yearor two, till we could save up enough between us for me to start on myown account; for as long as I am a journeyman, and liable to lose mywork any day, I would not ask her to come to me. But what with what wehave laid by, and this money you offer, I think we might very wellventure," and his radiant face showed the happiness the prospectcaused him.
"Very well, then. We may consider that as settled," Mrs. Conway said."What I want is for you to tell your Martha that she is to give noticeto leave at once, and that if she has an opportunity she is to mentionto Miss Penfold that she has a friend who is out of place at present,and whom she is sure will suit. Of course as she will say that she isgoing to leave to be married, Miss Penfold cannot be vexed with her,as she might be otherwise, and may take her friend on herrecommendation."
"But suppose she shouldn't, ma'am," and the young carpenter's facefell considerably at the thought, "where would Martha be then?"
"I shall pay the money, of course," Mrs. Conway said, "whether I getthe place through her or not. I should think that Miss Penfold willvery likely be glad to be saved the trouble of looking for anotherservant. But, if not, I must try some other way to get the place."
"What name am I to say her friend has?"
"Let me think. Ann Sibthorpe."
"But suppose she asks about where her friend has been in service,ma'am, and about her character?"
"We will settle that afterward. The first thing to do is for you to goover and see her, and ask her if she is willing to leave and do this."
"I think I can answer for that, ma'am," the young carpenter said witha quiet smile.
"Very well. Still, we had better have it settled. Will you go overto-day and see her? and then by to-morrow Mr. Tallboys and I will havetalked the matter over and settled about the other points. Of courseyou will tell her not to give notice until she has heard from you asto what she is to say about me."
"Very well, ma'am. I will start at once."
"I can arrange about the character," Mr. Tallboys said when they werealone. "I have a cousin in London, to whom I shall write and explainthe matter, and who will, I am sure, oblige me by writing to say thatAnn Sibthorpe is all that can be desired as a servant: steady, quiet,industrious and capable. Well, I really congratulate you, Mrs. Conway.At first I thought your project a hopeless one; now I think you haveevery chance of success."