"Oh, oh, I didn't know, mother," he blurted out, and was about to withdraw when Mrs. Trubner said—
"This is the new servant whom that lady in Sussex recommended."
Esther saw a look of instinctive repulsion come over his face.
"I'll leave you to settle with her, mother."
"I must speak to you, Harold—I must."
"I really can't; I know nothing of this matter."
He tried to leave the room, and when his mother stopped him he said testily, "Well, what is it? I am very busy just now, and—" Mrs. Trubner told Esther to wait in the passage.
"Well," said Mr. Trubner, "have you discharged her? I leave all these things to you."
"She has told me her story; she is trying to bring up her child on her wages…. She said if she was kept from earning her bread she didn't know what would become of her. Her position is a very terrible one."
"I know that…. But we can't have loose women about the place. They all can tell a fine story; the world is full of impostors."