“And you mean to tell me,” said Mrs. Anderson, “that you have anything to do with the ladies at Preston Manor?”
“Yes, she has a great deal to do with us, and we have been very unhappy about her. Oh Peggy, how could you treat us like that? I have been crying about you all the morning. Oh I have been unhappy!”
“And if I’d suspicioned ye was really frettin’ for me,” began Peggy, looking askance at Molly as she spoke, “faix! I don’t think I could face it! If you really want me?”——
“Of course I want you, we all want you.”
“I thought it was too good to last,” said Mrs. Anderson. “Do you mean to say, miss, that this young girl is a new servant you’ve got?”
“Mrs. Anderson, she’s not a servant at all, she’s a young lady by birth.”
“No, I ain’t! I ain’t no more a lady than Mrs. Anderson herself, nor as much. Then I’ll tell ye the whole story. As I was lyin’ stretched out this mornin’, I began to think, ‘Now, how can I get away from this awful hole of a place, at all, at all?’ An’ I thought an’ thought until at last it came over me that there was nothin’ for me but to run away, an’ so I did, maining, if ye will belave me, to go to some one who’d give me a trifle of money for me labours; for although I be ignorant of ye’r sort o’ things, miss, there’s a sight o’ things I can do, as Mrs. Anderson knows well.”
“Yes, I do; I can testify to that,” said Mrs. Anderson. “It seems a great pity she’s no servant, because I never came across a better one. But, my dear little girl, you see you can’t stay with me if you belong to these young ladies. You belong to the quality.”
“Faix, I don’t, an’ niver will!”
“Oh fie, child! fie! You’ve no right to quarrel with the position into which God Almighty places you. Miss, I’m more vexed than I can say; but you’ll excuse me. I was took all of a heap, so to speak, and when the young lady would only give out that she lived ‘back of beyont,’ how was I to guess that she meant your beautiful place, miss?”