Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. I, 1859.djvu/169

Rh "O no, sir; not when it's so heavy; I'm not strong enough to carry it. Alick takes it on horseback"

"No, I'm sure your pretty arms were never meant for such heavy weights. But you go out a walk sometimes these pleasant evenings, don't you? Why don't you have a walk in the Chase sometimes, now it's so green and pleasant? I hardly ever see you anywhere except at home and at church."

"Aunt doesn't like me to go a-walking only when I'm going somewhere," said Hetty. "But I go through the Chase sometimes."

"And don't you ever go to see Mrs Best, the housekeeper? I think I saw you once in the housekeeper's room."

"It isn't Mrs Best, it's Mrs Pomfret, the lady's-maid, as I go to see. She's teaching me tent-stitch and the lace-mending. I'm going to tea with her to-morrow afternoon." The reason why there had been space for this tête-à-tête can only be known by looking into the back-kitchen, where Totty had been discovered rubbing a stray blue-bag against her nose, and in the same moment allowing some liberal indigo drops to fall on her afternoon pinafore. But now she