“Why are you leaving her, Susan?”
“Oh, ma’am, only because she is gone.”
“Gone!—where?—what do you mean?”
“Gone to live at Mrs Rowland’s, ma’am. You didn’t know?—it was very sudden. But she moved yesterday, ma’am, and we were paid off—except Phoebe, who stays to wait upon her. I am left in charge of the house, ma’am: so I can step here again, if you wish it, some time when you are not going out.”
“Do so; any time this evening, or before noon to-morrow.”
“Did you know of this, Edward?” said his wife, as they turned the corner.
“Not I. I think Mrs Rowland is mistaken in saying that nothing can be kept secret in Deerbrook. I do not believe anybody has dreamed of the poor old lady giving up her house.”
“Very likely Mrs Rowland never dreamed of it herself; till the day it was done,” observed Margaret.
“Oh, yes, she did,” said Mr Hope. “I understand now the old lady’s agitation, and the expressions she dropped about ‘last times’ nearly a month ago.”
“By-the-by, that was the last time you saw her—was it not?”