rimrose. "Why, you are all
trembling. It is a terrible story, but as I say to Daisy about Mr.
Dove, don't let us think of it."

"Right you are, honey," said Hannah; "what can't be cured, you know.
If you don't mind, Miss Primrose, I'll just sit down for a minute. I'm
not to say quite myself. Oh, it ain't nothing, dearie; just a bit of
the trembles, and to prove to old Hannah that she is getting on in
years. I nursed you all, darling--him, my beautiful boy, and you
three. Miss Primrose, dear, how old would you say that Mr. Noel was.
I didn't have a fair look at him until to-day, and he seems quite a
young sort of man."

"Miss Egerton says that he is twenty-six, Hannah."

"Twenty-six," answered Hannah; "don't interrupt me for a minute, dear.
I'm comparing dates--twenty-six--twenty-six. Law, goodness gracious
me! You haven't never noticed, Miss Primrose, that he have a kind of a
mole--long-shaped, and rather big, a little way up his left arm? Have
you, now, dearies?"

"No, really, Hannah, I've never seen Mr. Noel's arm without his
coat-sleeve. How very queerly you are speaking, Hannah."

"Not at all, dearie; it's only because I've got the trembles on me.
Well, love, and so you don't want to be under no compliments to that
Mrs. Ellsworthy, who never took no notice of your poor dear ma?"

Primrose sighed.

"I feel sore about it, Hannah," she said. "But I must try not to be
too proud. I will ask God to help me to do what is really right in the
matter."

"That's it, honey, and maybe you won't have to do it after all. I
wonder, now, dear, if Mr. Noel is well off."

"Really, Hannah, I think you have got Mr. Noel on the brain! Yes, I
have heard Miss Egerton say that he is a rich man. He was the adopted
son of a very wealthy person, who left him all his property."

"Adopted, was he?" said Hannah. "On my word, these tremblings are
terrible! Miss Primrose, dear, I have come in to say that I may be
going a little journey in the morning. I'll be off by the first dawn,
so as to be back by night, and the shop needn't be opened at all
to-morrow. There's a nice cold roast fowl for you and Miss Daisy, and
a dish of strawberries which I gathered with my own hands not an hour
back, so you'll have no trouble with your dinner. You see that Miss
Daisy eats plenty of cream with her strawberries, dear, for cream's
fattening; and now good-night."

CHAPTER LIV.

A DISCOVERY.

Hannah Martin had never been much of a travelle