I
stopped there a year. Then she died and I went as parlor-maid
to a Senora Gredos. I was only there six months," and she
sighed.
"Why did you leave?" asked Geraldine.
Susan grew red. "I wished for a change," she said curtly.
But the housemaid did not believe her. She was a sharp girl
and her feelings were not refined. "It's just like these men--"
"I said nothing about men," interrupted Susan, sharply.
"Well, then, a man. You've been in love, Susan, and--"
"No. I am not in love," and Susan colored more than ever.
"Why, it's as plain as cook that you are, now," tittered
Geraldine.
"Hold your noise and leave the gal be," said Mrs. Pill,
offended by the allusion to her looks, "if she's in love she
ain't married, and no more she ought to be; if she'd had a
husband like mine, who drank every day in the week and lived
on my earnings. He's dead now, an' I gave 'im a 'andsome
tombstone with the text: 'Go thou and do likewise' on it,
being a short remark, lead letterin' being expensive. Ah
well, as I allays say, 'Flesh is grass with us all.'"
While the cook maundered on Thomas sat with his dull eyes
fixed on the flushed face of Susan. "What about the poisoning?"
he demanded.
"It was this way," said Susan. "Father was working at some
house in these parts--"
"What! Down here?"
"Yes, at Rexton, which was then just rising into notice as a
place for gentlefolks. He had just finished with a house when
he came home one day with his wages.
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