hey sound good to me."

"To think of wages sounding good to you, Miss Joy!"

"But they do. I'd do almost anything for money."

"Ye would not, Miss Joy."

"You don't know me."

"I know well that you could 'a' had Mr. Ludlow for the taking, and him
nearly as rich as me Poor Boy."

"So I could," said Miss Joy, "and perhaps I shall marry him after all."

"What!" exclaimed Martha. "Marry that old devil! Tell me ye'd sooner
starve--or--get out of me tub, and take yourself off!"

Old Martha rose hurriedly with a squeak of dismay, and rushed to close
the door between the bedroom and the sitting-room. She returned
breathing fast.

"They were knocking with the dinner," she explained, "and all the doors
open! Ye've soaked long enough, deary. Come out."

"Not until you say that you know I wouldn't marry Mr. Ludlow to save me
from drowning."

"Full well I know it," said Martha heartily. "Come out."

The girl came out of the tub reluctantly, and presently, swathed in
Martha's best lavender dressing-gown (she had bought it that morning),
was lifting a spoonful of clear green-turtle soup to her lips.

"Martha!"

"Miss Joy!"

"I see champagne."

"'Tis not only to look at, Miss Joy."

"It's wonderful," said Miss Joy, "starving--I meet you--champagne--and
to-morrow--"

Her sudden high spirits suddenly fell.

"Oh, Martha, from the top of even a small tree to the ground is a cruel,
hard fall!"

"We were speakin' of wages, Miss Joy. And of a certain young lady
willin' to do almost anything for money. Will ye come back to the woods
with me to help with the housework?"

"Oh, but Martha--it wouldn't do. It isn't as if I'd never known him--but
we were such good friends--and it would all be too uncomfortable and
embarrassing."

"Ye'd never see _him_, Miss Joy."

"Never see him!"

"He will look no one in the face but me. The faces that he loved are
nightmares to him now--all but old Martha's. No, Miss Joy--ye might,
peepin' from behind curtains, set eyes on me Poor Boy, but as for you,
he'd not know if you was man or woman, old or young, unless I told him.
He has his rules; when the men come in from the village he disappears
like a ghost. When they have gone he comes back. There'd be hours for
housework, when he'd be out of the way, and that there was a born lady
helping old Martha out and kapin' the poor woman company--he'd never
know--never at all."

"Hum," said Miss Joy to the bubbles in her glass of champagne