CHAPTER XXX
ON THE ROAD
All at Knowl was indicative of the break-up that was so near at hand. Doctor Bryerly arrived according to promise. He was in a whirl of business all the time. He and Mr. Danvers conferred about the management of the estate. It was agreed that the grounds and gardens should be let, but not the house, of which Mrs. Rusk was to take the care. The gamekeeper remained in office, and some out-door servants. But the rest were to go, except Mary Quince, who was to accompany me to Bartram-Haugh as my maid.
'Don't part with Quince,' said Lady Knollys, peremptorily 'they'll want you, but don't.'
She kept harping on this point, and recurred to it half a dozen times every day.
'They'll say, you know, that she is not fit for a lady's maid, as she certainly is not, if it in the least signified in such a wilderness as Bartram-Haugh; but she is attached, trustworthy, and honest; and those are qualities valuable everywhere, especially in a solitude. Don't allow them to get you a wicked young French milliner in her stead.'
Sometimes she said things that jarred unpleasantly on my nerves, and left an undefined sense of danger. Such as:—
'I know she's true to you, and a good creature; but is she shrewd enough?'