stopher was always very foresighted.'

'He ain't now, then,' muttered his sister.

'What is he doing?'

'Miss Esther, that yellow-haired woman has got holt o' him.'

This was said with a certain solemnity, so that Esther was very much
bewildered, and most incoherent visions flew past her brain. She waited
dumbly for more.

'She has, mum,' the housekeeper repeated; 'and Christopher ain't a
babby no more, but he's took--that's what he is. I wish, Miss
Esther--as if that would do any good!--that we'd stayed in Seaforth,
where we was. I'm that provoked, I don't rightly know myself.
Christopher ain't a babby no more; but it seems that don't keep a man
from bein' wuss'n a fool.'

'Do you mean'--

'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.'

'An' that, mum, is just what he's above all sure and certain he won't
do. I tell him, a man can't walk two ways to once; nor he can't serve
two masters, even if one of 'em is himself, which that yellow-haired
woman won't let come about. No, mum, he's certain sure he'll never
leave the colonel, mum; that ain't his meaning.'

Esther went silently away, thinking many things. She was more amused
than anything else, with the lightheartedness of youth; yet she
recognised the fact that this change might introduce other changes. At
any rate, it furnished an occasion for discussing several things with
her father. As usual, when she wanted a serious talk with the colonel,
she waited till the time when his attention