“Then you didn’t think she would come back,” said Mr Brown.
“It’s a matter o’ five-and-thirty years; and not knowing even her name, nor the number of the regiment, nor nothing—as I don’t,” said Nancy, cautiously; “and never hearing nothing about her, what was a person to think? And if it’s just Phœbe Thomson you’re inquiring after, and don’t say nothing about the marriage nor the regiment, you may seek long enough before you find her,” said Nancy, with a glance of what was intended to be private intelligence between herself and her questioner, “and all correct to the will.”
Mr Brown put up his memorandum-book sharply in his pocket. “Bring me the keys. Look here, bring me all the keys,” he said. “What’s in this other room, eh? It was her bedroom, I suppose. Hollo, what’s all this?”
For all Nancy’s precautions had not been able to ward off this catastrophe. He pushed into the room she had left to admit him, where all her treasures were exhibited. His quick eye glanced round in an instant, and understood it. Trembling as Nancy was with new alarms, she had still strength to make one struggle.
“Missis’s things fall to me,” said Nancy, half in assertion, half in entreaty; “that’s how it always is; the servant gets the lady’s wardrobe—the servant as has nursed her and done for her, when there’s no daughter—that’s always understood.”
“Bring me the keys,” said Mr Brown.
The keys were in the open wardrobe, a heavy bunch. John Brown seized hold of the furs on the bed and began to toss them into the wardrobe. Some of them dropped in pieces in his hands and were tossed out again. He took no notice of the lace or the trinkets, but swiftly-locked every keyhole he could find in the room—drawers, boxes, cupboards, everything. Nancy looked on with fierce exclamations. She would have her rights—she was not to be put upon. She would have the law of him. She would let everybody know how he was taking upon himself as if he was the master of the house.
“And so I am, my good woman; when will you be ready to leave it?” said Mr Brown. “You shall have due time to get ready, and I won’t refuse you the trumpery you’ve set your heart upon. Judging from the specimen, it won’t do Phœbe Thomson much good. But not in this sort of way, you know. I must put a stop to this. Now let me hear what’s the earliest day you can leave the house.”
“I’m not going to leave the house!” cried Nancy; “I’ve lived here thirty years, and here I’ll die. Missis’s meaning was to leave me in the house, and make me commforable for life. Many’s the time she’s said so. Do you think you’re going to order me about just as you please? What do you suppose she left the property like that for but to spite the Christians, and to leave a good home to me?”
“When will you be ready to leave?” repeated Mr Brown, without paying the least attention to her outcries and excitement.