And then at last came a flash of anger into Kathleen's eyes.
"Yes, a very hard and unrelenting woman, I fear, Mrs. Hanson! Has this child no other friends, no other relations, than you?"
"Never a soul hev she got, and I hev brought she up!"
"And now would turn her out of the house, knowing that she had no one to go to, no one to keep and protect her, for shame, Mrs. Hanson!" cried Kathleen in just indignation. Mrs. Hanson said nothing, she quivered and shook. Perhaps in her heart of hearts she wanted to give way, but she had said it, a stern and unrelenting woman was she, and prided herself on it.
"And where will you go to, Betty, when you leave your grandmother's cottage?"
"Oh my lady, I du not know, indeed I du not! For I hev not thought of it, but I wouldn't mind where I did go, so be it was not to Abram Lestwick, who I du hate and of whom I be in most mortal terror, my—my lady!"
"Then you shall not go to him, you shall come to me, Betty, and you shall be my little maid!" Kathleen said.
"To—to the Manor House, my—my lady?" Betty stammered, "Oh my Lady, to—to the Manor House?"
"Why, of course, child, for I live there!"
"Oh my Lady, I—I couldn't, don't ask me—I couldn't bear to—to go there and see it all—all as it be now—I couldn't my Lady, 'twould break my heart!"