"I want you to be Miss Harston's companion. She'll be lonely, and will need some other woman in the house to look after her."
"Curse her!" cried Rebecca, springing to her feet with flashing eyes. "You are still thinking of her, then! She must have this; she must have that! Everything else is as dirt before her. I'll not serve her—so there! You can knock me down if you like."
"Rebecca," said Ezra slowly, "do you hate Kate Harston?"
"From the bottom of my soul," she answered.
"Well, if you hate her, I tell you that I hate her a thousand times more. You thought that I was fond of her. All that is over now, and you may set your mind at ease."
"Why do you want her so well cared for, then?" asked the girl suspiciously.
"I want some one who feels towards her as I do to be by her side. If she were never to come back from Bedsworth it would be nothing to me."
"What makes you look at me so strangely?" she said, shrinking away from his intense gaze.
"Never mind. You go. You will understand many things in time which seem strange to you now. At present if you will do what I ask you will oblige me greatly. Will you go?"
"Yes, I will go."