I asked her to do so. She came up and spoke to me emphatically.
“You are going. When you go she will go too.”
“She?”
“Your own mother. She won’t stay another minute. The house will belong to the new queen; but Hannah won’t put up with it. I gave her notice this morning.”
“Hannah, you didn’t.”
“I did, my dear—I did. I said, ‘You are turning the child out, and the old woman goes too.’”
“Then you won’t stay for the sake of the boys?”
“No, I won’t; they can manage for themselves, even Master Charley and even beautiful Master Alex. I will say, anyhow, she wasn’t a bit unkind. She was very nice; I will say that for her. She’s a very nice woman, and under other circumstances I’d be inclined to like her. But there! she’s the new queen, and my heart is with the old one.”
Poor Hannah burst into tears; I had never seen her so overcome before.
“You will come back belonging to the house as it will be in the future. You are too young not to grow up in the new house; but I’m too old, child. I’ll never forget the old ways.”