"More 'an this," continued Ben, warming up, "Nelly the chambermaid is a going. She says that things don't suit her, and she's got too many mistresses, by half, for her money!"
"This is very strange," said Mabel, rising with that firm moral courage, which always prompted her to face a difficulty at once. "Say to the General, that I wish to speak with him."
"The General isn't at home Mar'm, and hasn't been since yesterday."
"Very well, Benson, I shall dine with the family; a household always goes wrong when its mistress is away."
"And shall I cook these beauties for you?" inquired Ben, gathering up the moist leaves, and laying them over the trout again, with pleasant alacrity; "the new cook mayn't know how to manage 'em; I don't want to flatter that ere conceited feller—but Ben Benson does know how to cook a trout arter he's catched it."
"Do as you please, Benson; they will certainly taste better from your hand than if prepared by a cook whom I have never seen."
"In course they will," answered Ben, taking up his basket. "I'll go down to the kitchen, and get things under way."
CHAPTER XXII.
A RENEWAL OF CONFIDENCE.
Mabel saw him depart almost unconsciously. The morning had been one of surprises and painfully conflicting feelings. She felt that a crisis in her life had arrived, that the time for dreamy thoughts and gentle endurance was at an end, and her strength rose to meet the occasion. The lassitude and nervous reluctance to give up her seclusion which had oppressed her of late, gave way, and with that dignity which is born of womanly self-command, she changed her toilet, and passed from the solitude of her sick room.