'Into the country?' No such request had been heard for a round dozen of years.
'I've got some business to see to.'
'At home? In Northumberland?'
'No.'
The tone seemed so little to promise anything in the nature of a confidence that Miss Levering merely said—
'Oh, very well. When do you want to go?'
'I could go to-morrow if——' She stopped, and looked down at the hem of her long white apron.
Something unwonted in the wooden face prompted Miss Levering to say—
'What do you want to do in the country?'
'To see about a place that's been offered me.'