Polore's manner was subdued as he greeted us. After all, what did one say to a woman who had sat at the servants' table and suddenly becomes one of the ladies of the house? Polore was quite at a loss.

"Good day, Mr. Johnny, sir. Good day ... er ... Ma am."

"Good day Polore." I had set the tone. "I hope all is well at the Abbas?"

Polore gave me a sidelong glance. I could imagine him repeating the incident over supper tonight; I could hear Mrs. Rolt's "My dear life" and Mrs. Salt's "I ain't been so shook, m'dear, since 'e come home in a mood one night... ."

But the gossip at the servants" table was no longer my concern.

We clop-clopped along the road and there was the Abbas looking more wonderful than it ever had before because I now had a share in it.

When he pulled up before the portico, Polore told us that old Lady St. Larnston had ordered that as soon as we arrived we were to be taken to her.

Johnny was a little tense but I held my head high. I wasn't afraid. I was Mrs. St. Larnston now.

Sir Justin and Judith were with her; they looked at us in astonishment as we entered.

"Come here, Johnny," said Lady St. Larnston; and as Johnny walked across the room to her chair I was beside him.

She was quivering with indignation and I could imagine how she had felt when she had first heard the news. She did not look at me but I knew she had to fight hard to prevent herself from doing so. In my new clothes I felt ready to face them all.

"After all the trouble you have caused," she went on, her voice quavering, "and now ... this. I can only be glad that your father is not here to see this day."

"Mother, I ..." began Johnny.

But she held up a hand to silence him.

"Never in my life has a member of my family so disgraced the name of St. Larnston."

I spoke then. "There is no disgrace, Lady St. Larnston. We are married. I can prove that to you."

"I was hoping it was another of your escapades, Johnny," she said, ignoring me. "This is worse than I expected."

Sir Justin had come to stand beside his mother's chair; he laid a hand on her shoulder as he said calmly; "Mother, what is done is done. Let us make the best of it. Kerensa, I welcome you into the family."

There was no welcome in his face; I could see he was as horrified by the marriage as his mother was. But Justin was a man who would always choose the peaceful way. By marrying a servant in his mother's house Johnny had created a scandal but the best way of subduing that scandal was to pretend it didn't exist.

I almost preferred Lady St. Larnston's attitude.

Judith came to support her husband. "You are right, darling. Kerensa is a St. Larnston now."

Her smile was warmer. All she wanted from the St. Larnstons was Justin's complete and undivided attention.

"Thank you," I said. "We are rather tired after our journey. I should like to wash. The trains are so dirty. And, Johnny, I should like some tea."

They were all looking at me in astonishment and I believe that I had Lady St. Larnston's grudging admiration and that while she was furious with Johnny for marrying me, she could not help admiring me for forcing him to it.

"There's a great deal I shall have to say to you." Lady St. Larnston was looking at Johnny.

I put in: "We can talk later." Then I smiled at my mother-in-law. "We do need that tea."

I slipped my arm through Johnny's and because they were all so astonished I had time to draw him from the room before they could reply.

We went to his room and there I rang the bell.

Johnny looked at me with the same expression I had seen on the faces of his family, but before he had time to comment Mrs. Rolt had arrived. I guessed she had not been far off during that interview with the family.

"Good day, Mrs. Rolt," I said. "We should like tea sent up at once."

She gaped at me for a second and then she said: "Er ... yes ... Ma'am."

I could picture her returning to the kitchen where they would be waiting for her.

Johnny leaned against the door; then he burst out laughing. "A witch!" he cried. "I've married a witch."

I was longing to see Granny, but my first interview was with Mellyora.

I went along to her room; she was expecting me, but when I opened the door she merely stared at me with something near horror in her eyes.

"Kerensa!" she cried.

"Mrs. St. Larnston," I reminded her with a laugh.

"You really have married Johnny!"

"I have the marriage lines if you wish to see them." I held out my left hand on which the plain gold band was evident.

"How could you!"

"Is it so hard to understand? This changes everything. No more Carlee, do this ... do that. I am my ex-mistress" sister-in-law. Tm her ladyship s daughter-in-law. Think of that. Poor little Kerensa Carlee, the girl from the cottages. Mrs. St. Larnston, if you please."

"Kerensa, sometimes you frighten me."

"I frighten you?" I looked boldly into her face. "There is no need for you to be afraid for me. I can look after myself."

She flushed, for she knew I was hinting that perhaps she could not.

Her lips tightened and she said: "So it would seem. And now you are no longer a lady's maid. Oh, Kerensa, was it worth it?"

"That remains to be seen, doesn't it?"

"I don't understand."

"No, you wouldn't."

"But I thought you hated him."

"I don't hate him any more."

"Because he offered you a position you could accept?"

There was a tinge of sarcasm in her voice which I resented.

"At least," I said, "he was free to marry me."

I flounced out of the room but after a few minutes I went back. I had caught Mellyora oS her guard; she was lying on her bed with her face buried in the pillows. I threw myself down beside her. I could not bear that we should not be friends.

"It's like it used to be," I said.

"No... . It's quite different."

"The positions are reversed, that's all. When I was at the parsonage you looked after me. Well, now it will be my turn to look after you."

"No good will come of this."

"You wait and see."

"If you loved Johnny... ."

"There are all sorts of love, Mellyora. There's love ... sacred and profane.''

"Kerensa, you sound so ... flippant."

"It's often a good way to be."

"I can't believe you. What has happened to you, Kerensa?"

"What has happened to us both?" I asked.

Then we lay still on the bed and we were both wondering what the outcome of her love for Justin would be.

I could scarcely wait to see Granny and ordered Polore to drive me to the cottage the next day. How I enjoyed alighting, dressed in my green and black. I told him to return for me in an hour.

Granny looked anxiously into my face.

"Well, my love?" was all she said.

"Mrs. St. Larnston now. Granny."

"So you've got what 'ee do want, eh?"

"It's a beginning."

"Oh?" she said, opening her eyes very wide; but she did not ask me to explain. Instead she took me by the shoulders and looked into my face. "You look happy," she said at length.

Then I threw myself into her arms and hugged her. When I released her she turned away and I knew she didn't want me to see the tears in her eyes. I took off my hat and coat and mounted to the talfat and I lay there and talked to her while she smoked her pipe.

She was different, sometimes so absorbed in her own thoughts that I believed she didn't hear all I said. I didn't mind. I just wanted to open my heart and talk as I could talk to no one else.

I would have a child soon, I was certain of it. I wanted a boy—a St. Larnston he would be.

"And, Granny, if Justin doesn't have any children, my son will inherit the Abbas. He'll be a sir. Granny. How do you like that? Sir Justin St. Larnston, your great-grandson."

Granny stared intently at the smoke from her pipe.

"There'll always be a new goal for 'ee, lovey," she said at length. "Maybe that's how life were meant to be lived. Maybe tis all for the best the way things has worked out. And you love this husband of yours?"

"Love, Granny? He's given me what I wanted. It's from him I'll get what I want now. I remember that it couldn't have been ... without Johnny."

"And you think that's a substitute for love, Kerensa?"

"I'm in love. Granny."

"In love with your husband, girl?"

"In love with the present, Granny. What more can one ask?"

"No, us couldn't ask more than that, could us? And who be we to question the means when the ends give us all we could wish for? I'd die happy, Kerensa, if you could go on as you be at this moment."

"Don't talk of dying," I ordered; and she laughed at me. "Not I, my beauty. That were an order from one as gives orders now." Then we laughed as only we could laugh together; and I fancied that Granny was less uneasy than she had been when I first arrived.

How I enjoyed my new position! I suffered no embarrassment. I had schooled myself for the role so many times in my imagination that now I was perfectly rehearsed and could play it to perfection. I amused myself and Johnny by imitating the sort of conversation which I knew was going on in the kitchen. I could give orders as coolly as old Lady St. Larnston and a great deal more so than Judith. Judith and I were actually friends. Sometimes I would dress her hair for her because she was now without a maid, but I clearly let her understand this was a sisterly gesture. I think the fact that I had married Johnny pleased her because she could not stop herself believing that every woman was after Justin. To have me paired off with Johnny was therefore a comfort; although had it been Mellyora who had eloped with Johnny she would have been really delighted.