She lifted her eyes from the book she was reading to see a spare little figure coming up the garden walk.
"Good evening, little maid," she said pleasantly, "was there something you wished to say to me?"
"'GOOD EVENING, LITTLE MAID,' SHE SAID, PLEASANTLY."
Sally swallowed hard, and scarcely lifting her eyes, she replied, in a frightened voice:
"Yes, Mistress Kent, I want to get learning."
"That is praiseworthy," said Mistress Maria, "and have any arrangements been made by which you can enter upon the duties and privileges of a youthful scholar?"
Sally had told herself on the way that she must be brave, and so, scarcely understanding or even knowing what Mistress Kent had said, she began with a good show of courage for so timid and untaught a child:
"There is no one to help me, Mistress, I must help myself, but I can do things if I try. I have set my heart on getting learning, which I shall! I have no money but about fourpence-ha'penny a week for darning stockings, but I have skill with the needle somewhat. If I could clean, or weed, or sew, my work should be well done. Could I sew for you or your mother, Mistress Kent, or do any kind of work that would pay for learning to read and write and spell? For learn I shall!"
Sally was on the point of crying out loud as she finished her speech, so very hard had it been for her to make it, yet glad and half surprised she was, that, without stopping, the whole story had been told.