I want any little thing done for
me, a note written, or flowers put in water, or any little things of that
sort, I'd sooner ask her to do it for me than either you or Hilary."

"Well, and so she ought to make herself useful," said Maud, turning
restive at the merest hint of criticism from the mother who usually had
nothing but praise for her daughters. "After all, that is what she is
here for. She is paid for that, isn't she?"

"I am paying her nothing," Mrs. Danvers said.

"Well, she gets her board and lodging, anyhow, and a better time into the
bargain than she would be getting grilling away in an empty house at
Hampstead," Maud retorted. "And I think she ought to be jolly thankful to
be here."

This conversation was taking place in the morning-room by the open French
window of which Maud had stood while carrying on her share of it, and her
last speech had been uttered with so much vigour that as her back was
partly turned to the room she had not heard the door open. And though her
mother coughed once or twice in an agonised way, it was not until she had
quite finished all she had to say that Maud swung round and saw Margaret
standing with a pile of letters in her hand by her mother's chair.

[Illustration: MAUD SWUNG ROUND AND SAW MARGARET STANDING WITH A PILE
OF LETTERS BY HER MOTHER'S CHAIR.]

"I have finished these, Mrs. Danvers," she said quietly; "is there
anything else you would like me to do?"

Margaret had certainly gained in self-possession since she had come to
The Cedars. A fortnight ago if she had heard a remark of that sort about
herself she would have rushed in tears from the room, but now she seemed
to guess intuitively that the right thing and the kindest thing to do was
to pretend not to have heard it. Certainly from her manner Maud would
never have guessed that her speech had been overheard. Nevertheless, she
knew that Miss Carson could not have failed to hear every word, and
flushing darkly even through the sunburn of her cheeks, she fled out of
the room by the window, literally without a word to say for herself. And
when Mrs. Danvers attempted an apology on her daughter's behalf it was
Margaret's turn to show embarrassment.

"Please, please," she said earnestly, "do not think that I mind what Maud
said. You are all very kind to me, and Maud is quite right. It is much
nicer here than it would be in an empty house in Hampstead."

"That reminds me, my dear," Mrs. Danvers said. "Sit down here