She and Justin had ridden over to her family for luncheon. Afterguards they had left together and, and... . She paused and I guessed that they had quarreled. I pictured them having luncheon in the gloomy house; perhaps her mother was there, a little vague—and they would be wondering all the rime what she would do next. That house was full of shadows and the legend of the monster would be hanging over it. I imagined Justin wishing he had never married her, perhaps wondering why he ever had. I pictured him making some remark which upset her—then the passionate demands for him to show his affection, and the quarrels.

They would have left Derrise together and he angrily would whip up his horse and ride away from her—anything to escape; and she would weep. I could see she had been weeping. Too late she would try to follow him, would realize that she had lost him, and then begin to wonder where he was.

She had come back to the Abbas to find him and when he was not there she was overcome by jealous anxiety.

I was mending one of her gowns when she burst in on me.

"Kerensa," she said, for she had guessed that I objected to being called by my surname and this was one of the charms about her that she had a wish to please everybody, providing doing so made no great demands upon her. "Where is the companion?"

"Miss Martin?" I stammered.

"Of course. Of course. Where is she? Find her ... at once."

"You wish to speak to her?"

"Speak to her. No. I wish to know if she is here." I understood. I wondered fleetingly if Justin might be with Mellyora. What a calm and pleasant companion Mellyora would seem after this demanding, passionate woman. In that moment it did occur to me that a dangerous situation was arising-not for me, except that whatever touched Mellyora must touch me too, for our lives had become intermingled. I might have brooded on this-but for what was soon to follow and which affected me more personally.

I said quietly that I would see if I could find Mellyora. I took my mistress back to her room and made her lie down on her bed and left her. It did not take me long to find Mellyora; she was in the garden with Lady St. Larnston who was picking roses. Mellyora walked beside her carrying the basket and the clippers. I could hear Lady St. Larnston s imperious orders and Mellyora's meek responses.

So I was able to go back to my mistress and tell her that Mellyora was in the garden with her employer.

Judith relaxed but she was exhausted. I was rather alarmed because I thought she was going to be ill. Her head ached, she told me, and I massaged her forehead and rubbed in eau de Cologne. I drew the curtains and left her to sleep but she did not rest for more than ten minutes before she needed me again.

I had to brush her long hair which, she said, soothed her, and every time we heard a movement below she would rush to the window hoping, I knew, that it was Justin returned.

This was a situation which could not go on. Something must happen sooner or later to change it. It was like the gathering of a storm; and it was natural that storms should break. I was beginning to be a little uneasy about Mellyora.

And that was how I was feeling when I went down to the hall to take supper with my fellow servants. I was tired because Judith's emotions had in some measure been communicated to me and Mellyora was a great deal in my thoughts.

I knew as soon as I sat down that Mrs. Rolt had some news which she was longing to tell us; but it was typical of her that she held back the titbit for as long as possible. When she was eating she would always leave the best pieces on her plate until the end and it amused me to watch her eying them with anticipation while she ate. That was how she looked now.

Mrs. Salt was talking in her low monotonous voice about her husband, and her daughter Jane was the only one who was really paying attention. Doll kept patting her hair in which she had tied a new blue ribbon and she was whispering to Daisy that Tom Pengaster had given it to her. Haggety sat down next to me, bringing his chair a fraction closer. He breathed onto my face and said: "Bit of trouble in high places today, eh, m'dear?"

"Trouble?" I asked.

"Him and her, of course."

Mrs. Rolt was watching us, her lips pursed, her eyes disapproving. She was telling herself that I was leading poor Mr. Haggety on; such a belief suited her better than the true one and she was a woman who would always delude herself into believing what she wanted to. And while she watched us she was smiling slyly, thinking of that titbit of news with which she was planning to startle us.

I did not answer Mr. Haggety because I disliked discussing Judith and Justin in the kitchen quarters.

"Ha," went on Haggety. "She comes in, in a rare paddy. I saw her."

"Well," put in Mrs. Rolt portentously, "it do go to show that money hain't everything."

Haggety sighed piously. "We m a lot to be thankful, Fm thinking."

"Trouble comes to all sorts," went on Mrs. Rolt, giving me a clue to the news she was withholding, "be they gentry or the likes of we."

"You never spoke a truer word, me dear," sighed Haggety.

Mrs. Salt started to cut the great pasty which she had made that morning and Mrs. Rolt signed to Daisy to fill the mugs with ale.

"I reckon there's trouble coming," said Mrs. Salt. "And if anyone knows trouble when they see it coming, that's me. Why I remember... ."

But Mrs. Rolt wasn't going to let the cook ramble back to her reminiscences. "It's what you might call a one-sided relationship, and them sort ain't good for nobody, if you were to ask me."

Haggety nodded in agreement and turned his rather bulging eyes on Mrs. Rolt while his foot touched mine under the table.

"Mind you," went on Mrs. Rolt, whose pleasure it was always to feign great knowledge of relationships between the sexes, "one thing, I'd say. Mr. Justin bain't the man to get himself into that sort of trouble."

"With another woman, you mean, me dear?" asked Haggety.

"That is exactly what I did mean, Mr. Haggety. That's the trouble if you ask me. One blowing hot and one blowing cold. Twould seem he don't want one woman, let be two."

"They're a wild family," put in Mr. Trelance. "I had a brother who worked over at Derrise."

"We do all know that story," Mrs. Rolt silenced him.

"And they say," put in Doll excitedly, "that last time when the moon was full ..."

"That'll do, Doll," said Mrs. Rolt who would not allow the lower servants to discuss the family, it being a privilege of the higher ones to do that.

"I remember once," said Mrs. Trelance dreamily, "seeing that Miss Martin over here ... that were when her father were alive. A real pretty creature. She were on her horse and Mr. Justin were helping her off it... and I said to Trelance here, I said. There's a pretty picture for you"; and Trelance he said that if parson s daughter were the mistress of Abbas one day we couldn't have a prettier nor a sweeter."

Mrs. Rolt turned an angry glance on Mrs. Trelance. "Well, her be the companion now and who ever heard of companions being the mistress."

"Well, she couldn't now ... him being married," said Mrs. Salt. "Though men being men... ." She shook her head and there was a silence round the table.

Mrs. Rolt said sharply, "Mr. Justin hain't men, Mrs. Salt And it ain't no good you're thinking all men is like that man of yours because I can tell you different." She smiled secretly and then went on in a voice portentous with promise. "And talk about trouble ..."

We were all silent waiting for her to go on. She had come to the titbit; she had all our attention, and she was ready.

"Her ladyship sent for me this afternoon. She wanted me to see that a certain person's room be made ready. She weren't very pleased, I can tell 'ee. There have been terrible trouble. As soon as Mr. Justin come in, she sends for him. I was to watch out, she said, and the minute he come in he was to go to her. So I watched and I saw him come in. She was down there ... Mrs. Justin ... all tears and clinging to him. 'Oh, darling ... darling ... where have you been ...?"

There was a titter round the table but Mrs. Rolt was eager now to get on.

"I stopped all that. "Her ladyship wants you to go to her at once, Mr. Justin,' I said. "Her ladyship's orders that there shouldn't be any delay.' So he looks pleased like ... anything to get away from her with her darling ... darling ... and he goes straight up to her ladyship. Now I knew what had happened because she'd told me, though she didn't tell me why, but as I was polishing in the corridor outside her ladyship's room I happened to hear her say: It's on account of some woman. This is such a disgrace. I thank God his poor father can't understand. If he could, it would kill him.' I says to myself trouble comes, be we gentry or the likes of we and it be true."

She paused and lifting her mug of ale to her lips drank, smacked her lips and regarded us triumphantly. "Mr. Johnny be coming home. They've sent him home. They don't want him there no more since he have disgraced himself over this woman."

I stared down at my plate; I did not want any of them to notice the effect those words had had on me.

Johnny's presence in the house changed it for me. I was aware that he was determined to be my lover and the fact that he now found me installed as a servant in the house amused and delighted him.

The very first day he returned he sought me out. I was sitting in my room reading when he walked in. I stood up angrily because he had not asked permission to enter.