Midsummer's Eve

"She's had a hard life. She came up to London from the country. She had a job as maid or something. The master of the house was offensive and the mistress turned her out. Frances is looking for a good situation for her.”

"You want to be careful whom you employ," said Uncle Peter.

"I am being very careful. I like Kitty. Frances says she is a good girl.”

"Frances is apt to have a rose-coloured view of her inmates.”

"I think Frances is very shrewd," said Aunt Amaryllis.

"In any case, I've made up my mind," I told them. "I shall go down to the Mission and put this proposition to Kitty and Frances. And if they are agreeable I shall employ her. I'll get some clothes for her. I think she would like to go to the country for a while.”

Aunt Amaryllis nodded, with tears in her eyes.

I went that very day to the Mission and put my proposition first to Frances.

She was delighted with it. "Just what Kitty needs," she said. "She took a great fancy to you from the day she saw you. I'll send for her. She's peeling potatoes in the kitchen.”

Kitty arrived and when I told her what I had in mind, her delight was a joy to see.

"It will be very quiet where I'm going," I warned her. "Just a little cottage on the edge of an estate which was once mine. There won't be any other servants.”

"When do we leave, Miss Cadorson?" asked Kitty.

Frances embraced us both-a rare demonstration for her.

"You've made a good choice," she said.

And in spite of what lay before me my spirits lifted a little.

Kitty and I travelled part of the way on the railway, which was a novelty to us both.

It seemed so wonderful to travel in such an exciting fashion, but of course the railways were encroaching all over the countryside at this time. It was a great innovation, but nothing could be wholly good, it seemed, and many stagecoach drivers were being deprived of their livelihoods. I had heard many a sad story of their fates from Frances and Peterkin.

We stayed at night at an inn at Exeter and there heard from the landlord that the railways would in time be the end of the old coaching inns.

We travelled the rest of the way by coach which dropped us in the town. Mr. and Mrs. Tamblin were there to meet us for they had been warned of my coming. They both greeted me warmly and I introduced Kitty as my maid. She was very demure and I could see how excited she was. She had told me on the night before that she had never had such an exciting adventure in her life and had never thought to travel in a real train.

She stood at the window of the inn and inhaled the fresh country air.

I felt very pleased that I had been able to do something to make her so happy. Mrs. Tamblin told me that she had had certain things taken out of store and put into Croft Cottage, so it could be lived in right away. Then I could decide what other things I wanted. She herself would come along with me to the storage warehouse and explain everything to me. But first we were going to spend a night with them. We could start sorting everything out in the morning. She knew how tired and hungry we must be after that long journey.

"And you travelled on the train!" she cried, looking at us with wonder. I think she thought we had taken our lives in our hands to travel in such a strange contraption.

The Tamblins' carriage had been waiting for us and in a short time we arrived at their house. I was ushered into my bedroom and Kitty was to sleep in a little dressing room attached to it.

"Now you wash the journey off you and then come down to eat. I'll go and see that they get it on the table.”

So I did.

Kitty was given a meal in the kitchen and I sat down with the Tamblins.

"It is good to see you back," said Mrs. Tamblin. "I was hoping you might come when orders were sent to see about the repairs to Croft Cottage.”

"Is it now in good order?”

"In perfect order. It's a pleasant little place," said Mrs. Tamblin.

"Your mother did well to buy it," added her husband.

"Do you think I shall find a buyer quickly?”

"Property is not going all that quickly now and it is rather remote. A lot depends on luck.”

"Perhaps you will like it so much you'll change your mind about selling," said Mrs. Tamblin.

I was silent.

"I was wondering," she went on, "how you'd feel about being so close to Cador.”

"I don't know ... yet.”

"What a change in that place! Isaacs is very worried about the way things are going.

I saw Mrs. Penlock the other day. She was near to tears.”

"It's going downhill fast, I think," said Mr. Tamblin. "Even a big estate can't stand up to that sort of thing.”

"What sort of thing?”

"I don't exactly know. There are rumors. Mortgages and so on ... changing things.

They're spending money like water. And there's nothing done to the farms nor to the house itself. You have to keep your eye on those sorts of places. People forget how old they are. A little crack ... and in no time it's a big crack ... and my goodness, then there's trouble. You've got to be on the watch all the time.”