“Don’t be unjust, Sarah, dear. Papa speaks harshly sometimes, but he has the welfare of all his people at heart.”
“And casts me out on to the high road.”
“Nonsense, dear,” said Claude gently. “Don’t speak in that bitter way, when we are all trying so hard to soften your terrible loss. Papa’s business must go on; and Rennals, naturally, takes poor Woodham’s place. I thought it all over this morning, and I felt that you would consent.”
“To give up the house? Of course; it is not mine.”
“And would be of no use to you now.”
“No;—but a way will open to me yet,” she added to herself.
“Sarah, dear old friend, you could not live alone. You will come back to your own old place with us?”
“What?”
The woman sprang to her feet as if she had received some shock, then reeled, and would have fallen, but for Claude’s quick aid.
“I have been too sudden. I ought to have waited, but I thought it would set your mind at rest.”