'Yes 'm, that's what he has done; just that; and I might as well talk to my spoons. I've knowed it a while, but I was purely ashamed to tell you about it. I allays gave Christopher the respect belongin' to a man o' sense, if he warn't in high places.'
'But what has he done?'
'Didn't I tell you, Miss Esther? That yellow-haired woman has got holt of him.'
'Yellow-haired woman?'
'Yes, mum,—the gardener woman down here.'
'Is Christopher going to take service with her?'
'He don't call it that, mum. He speaks gay about bein' his own master. I reckon he'll find two ain't as easy to manage as one! She knows what she's about, that woman does, or my name ain't Sarah Barker.'
'Do you mean,' cried Esther,—'do you mean that he is going to marry her?'
'That's what I've been tellin' you, mum, all along. He's goin' to many her, that he is; and for as old as he is, that should know better.'
'Oh, but Christopher is not old; that is nothing; he is young enough.
I did not think, though, he would have left us.'