MONEY MATTERS 183 



and claim kinship. / don't know but some of the 

 Frenchs mayn't have married some of your people 

 in the past — " 



" That would scarcely make me your niece. 

 Anyhow, I don't care, only the servants — " 



" Faith, and it's little the servants will say. 

 They're dead-set against the EngHsh folk, and 

 won't have a word with them. Only this morning 

 I heard Mrs DriscoU with a chap that had come 

 round selling vegetables. ' Away with you,' says 

 she, ' or I'll set the dog on you, coming round to 

 my back door with your turnips and your rub- 

 bish! ' The sight of an English face sets her off, 

 going Hke an alarum clock. But little I care about 

 that, so long as she doesn't go off herseK." 



" Well, then, I'll go now and see what Effie's 

 doing and how the servants are getting on. Mr 

 Dashwood is coming down for the week-end, is he 

 not? " 



" Yes; he'll be down on Friday." 



" The great comfort about him," said she, *' is 

 that he takes us just as we are, and there's no 

 trouble or expense with him." 



She left the room. It was the second morning 

 of their stay at The Martens, and before going 

 to look after Effie and the servants she passed 

 out on the verandah and stood there for a moment 

 looking at the winter landscape and then down at 

 the house of the Crowsnesters. 



She felt dimly antagonistic to the people who 

 lived in those comfortable-looking red-tiled houses 



