Page:Possession (Roche, February 1923).pdf/25

 this place. I s'pose you know that your great-grandfather built it above a hundred years ago."

"My uncle talked to me a great deal when he was in Halifax. He spoke of you too."

"He might well speak of me. I've served his family faithful for—let's see—fifty-four years this month. And the last two years, I've run the place myself, you might say. Not bad for a woman of seventy-two, eh?"

"Wonderful."

"And now I want to know if you're going to keep me on. It don't matter a bit to me because I've got a sister in Mistwell that wants me to live with her, and I haven't slaved all these years and saved nothing you may depend on it."

For all her air of independence Derek could see that she was fiercely eager to stay. He did not want her, yet he was afraid to be left alone in charge of the four men and the girl. He might make himself ridiculous. He said:

"In his will my uncle recommended you. Of course I shall want you to stay on."

"Well, I'm glad that's settled. Not that it matters to me, though I do look on Grimstone as my home, having lived here ever since my father was drowned."

"In the lake here?"

"Why not? There's plenty of room, ain't there? It gets all the Mistwell fishermen sooner or later. It didn't get pa till he'd fathered six of us, so that wasn't so bad. But it laid low and got two out of the six. Fools, to be fishermen!"

When she was gone and the door closed behind her, Derek stretched his legs and felt for his pipe. He lay back in his armchair staring at the ceiling darkened by the soot from a