“What, Margaret! Whoever expected to see you? If we are to let the rooms, it’s as well to have the things tidy, isn’t it? Besides, a person bears it all the better when there’s anything to do.”
Then Mary Jane, the eldest daughter, came in from the bedroom behind the drawing-room, similarly armed for work.
Margaret sat down wearily upon the sofa, having muttered some word in answer to Mrs Tom’s apology for having been found at work so soon after her husband’s death.
“Sarah,” she said, “I have come to you to-day because I had something to say to you about business.”
“Oh, to be sure! I never thought for a moment you had come for pleasure, or out of civility, as it might be. Of course I didn’t expect that when I saw you.”
“Sarah, will you come upstairs with me into your own room?”
“Upsta
