ggish scions of the Mardykes family removed
forthwith from his place in the Hall, and found a retirement here, from
which he has not since emerged.

At the far end of this snug room is a second door, on opening which you
find yourself looking down upon the great kitchen, with a little balcony
before you, from which the housekeeper used to issue her commands to the
cook, and exercise a sovereign supervision.

There is a shelf on which Mrs Julaper had her Bible, her _Whole Duty of
Man_, and her _Pilgrim's Progress_; and, in a file beside them, her
books of housewifery, and among them volumes of MS. recipes,
cookery-books, and some too on surgery and medicine, as practised by the
Ladies Bountiful of the Elizabethan age, for which an antiquarian would
nowadays give an eye or a hand.

Gentle half-foolish Philip Feltram would tell the story of his wrongs,
and weep and wish he was dead; and kind Mrs. Julaper, who remembered him
a child, would comfort him with cold pie and cherry-brandy, or a cup of
coffee, or some little dainty.

"O, ma'am, I'm tired of my life. What's the good of living, if a poor
devil is never let alone, and called worse names than a dog? Would not
it be better, Mrs. Julaper, to be dead? Wouldn't it be better, ma'am? I
think so; I think it night and day. I'm always thinking the same thing.
I don't care, I'll just tell him what I think, and have it off my mind.
I'll tell him I can't live and bear it longer."

"There now, don't you be frettin'; but just sip this, and remember
you're not to judge a friend by a wry word. He does not mean it, not he.
They all had a rough side to their tongue now and again; but no one
minded that. I don't, nor you needn't, no more than other folk; for the
tongue, be it never so bitin', it can't draw blood, mind ye, and hard
words break no bones; and I'll make a cup o' tea--ye like a cup o'
tea--and we'll take a cup together, and ye'll chirp up a bit, and see
how pleasant and ruddy the sun shines on the lake this evening."

She was patting him gently on the shoulder, as she stood slim and stiff
in her dark silk by his chair, and her rosy little face smiled down on
him. She was, for an old woman, wonderfully pretty still. What a
delicate skin she must have had! The wrinkles were etched upon it with
so fine a needle, you scarcely could see them a little way off; and as
she smiled her cheeks looked fresh and smooth as two ruddy little
apples.

"Look out, I say," and she nodde