earn no doubt
to model herself on their refinement. She might even be asked to their
homes for her holidays, and, making friends in their circle, take a
short cut to silken immobility on the drawing-room sofa by way of
marriage.... Joanna congratulated herself on having really done very
well for Ellen, though during the first weeks she missed her sister
terribly. She missed their quarrels and caresses--she missed Ellen's
daintiness at meals, though she had often smacked it--she missed her
strutting at her side to church on Sunday--she missed her noisy,
remonstrant setting out to school every morning and her noisy
affectionate return--her heart ached when she looked at the little empty
bed in her room, and being sentimental she often dropped a tear where
she used to drop a kiss on Ellen's pillow.

Nevertheless she was proud of what she had done for her little sister,
and she was proud too of having restored Ansdore to prosperity, not by
stinging and paring, but by her double capacity for working hard herself
and for getting all the possible work out of others. If no one had gone
short under her roof, neither had anyone gone idle--if the tea was
strong and the butter was thick and there was always prime bacon for
breakfast on Sundays, so was there also a great clatter on the stairs at
five o'clock each morning, a rattle of brooms and hiss and slop of
scrubbing-brushes--and the mistress with clogs on her feet and her
father's coat over her gown, poking her head into the maids' room to see
if they were up, hurrying the men over their snacks, shouting commands
across the yard, into the barns or into the kitchen, and seemingly
omnipresent to those slackers who paused to rest or chat or "put their
feet up."

That time had scarred her a little--put some lines into the corners of
her eyes and straightened the curling corners of her mouth, but it had
also heightened the rich healthy colour on her cheeks, enlarged her fine
girth, her strength of shoulder and depth of bosom. She did not look any
older, because she was so superbly healthy and superbly proud. She knew
that the neighbours were impressed by Ansdore's thriving, when they had
foretold its downfall under her sway.... She had vindicated her place in
her father's shoes, and best of all, she had expiated her folly in the
matter of Socknersh, and restored her credit not only in the bar of the
Woolpack but in her own eyes.

Sec.2

One afternoon, soon after Ellen had