Esther Campbell and her recovered daughter were now seated close together on the crimson sofa, which was drawn up on one side of the blazing fire. Esther had her grandchild on her lap and her right arm around Jennie’s waist, while Jennie’s head rested on her shoulder.
“Come, Hetty, my love, we want our tea,” said the curate.
Mrs. Campbell put the baby in its mother’s arms and rang the bell.
A Yorkshire woman of middle age, dressed in a blue cheviot cloth skirt and a gay striped sack of many colors, came in with the tea urn and put it on the table. She was a stranger to Jennie, but she courtesied to the “master’s” daughter, who returned her greeting with a smile and bow.
“Where is our old servant, mamma?” inquired Jennie when the new one had left the room.
“Oh, Julia? She married the greengrocer and left us just before we left Medge.”
“Why, Julia was forty years old at least!”
“Yes, dear, and the greengrocer was a widower of fifty with all his children grown up, married and settled.”
“A good match for Julia, then!”
“Excellent.”