her; and we’ll ride in her coach and wear black clothes!’
‘How do you come here, child? What nonsense be ye talking! Go away, and play on the stairs till father and mother be ready! . . . Well, Tess ought to go to this other member of our family. She’d be sure to win the lady—Tess would; and likely enough ’twould lead to some noble gentleman marrying her. In short, I know it.’
‘How?’
‘I tried her fate in the Fortune-Teller, and it brought out that very thing. You should ha’ seen how pretty she looked to-day; her skin is as sumple as a duchess’s.’
‘What says the maid herself to going?’
‘I’ve not asked her. She don’t know there is any such lady relation yet. But it would certainly put her in the way of a grand marriage, and she won’t refuse to go.’
‘Tess is queer.’
‘But she’s tractable at bottom. Leave her to me.’
Though this conversation had been private, sufficient of its import reached the understandings of those around to suggest to them that the Dur-
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