The cottage that “the witch” had lived in so many years was done up and thoroughly repaired; but nobody would live in it, as it was said to be haunted. Some boys declared that late at night they had seen a black cat with three white hairs on its breast prowling about on the roof and making a most unearthly noise, and that——
* * * * *
The post! Thank you. Oh, Harry! who do you think this letter’s from? It’s from Jenny. She and her husband are coming to stay with us at last, and they’re going to bring the baby. Oh! I am so glad.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCLUSION.
I don’t know why it is, but when I sit down to write this “Memoir,” knowing that it may be the last that I shall ever write, it makes me feel a little sad.
In all human probability I, Mary Jane Beckett, am writing the last few pages of the last book that will ever come from my pen. We are leaving the ‘Stretford Arms,’ and going into a much larger house—a real big hotel in a well-known county town—where we shall have waiters in evening dress, and a big coffee-room, and a large commercial-room, and we shall make up over fifty beds, besides having a large room for sales and auctions, and another very large, lofty room for balls and big dinners and assemblies, and that sort of thing.
I am very sorry to leave the dear old ‘Stretford Arms,’—our first house, and the one where we have spent some happy years, and where my little Harry and my little Mary were both born; but we have made money, and we must not stand still. We have sold the house most advantageously, and made a very large profit, as we ought to do, for we have worked the business up and improved the premises very considerably.
It was a long time before we made up our minds, and we had very long and anxious talks; but a friend of Harry’s told us about the big hotel that was to be had in a Midland county town, and which was just the place for us to work up and do well in, and Harry, having a means of getting all the extra money, wanted to take it. It seemed a pity to let it go, especially as we could never hope to do better than we were doing at the ‘Stretford Arms,’ and if we are not going to work hard all our lives we must get into a place where we can make a bigger profit, and get more scope for our capital.
I have been to see the new house, and a very fine place it is. The rooms are simply grand. It is right opposite the Corn Exchange, and has a noble entrance-hall with statues in it, and is called the “Royal Hotel,” because Queen Elizabeth once slept there. Harry says that Queen Elizabeth seems to have slept at nearly every old hotel in the kingdom; but that is all nonsense.
The place is in really excellent order, having not long ago been refurnished by a great London firm, and some of the bedrooms are fit for Queen Elizabeth to come to now.