“My spirits mounted still higher when Mrs. Carkeek opened the door to us.  I had looked for a Mrs. Gummidge, and I found a healthy middle-aged woman with a thoughtful but contented face, and a smile which, without a trace of obsequiousness, quite bore out the farmer’s description of her.  She was a comfortable woman; and while we walked through the rooms together (for Mr. Hosking waited outside) I ‘took to’ Mrs. Carkeek.  Her speech was direct and practical; the rooms, in spite of their faded furniture, were bright and exquisitely clean; and somehow the very atmosphere of the house gave me a sense of well-being, of feeling at home and cared for; yes, of being loved.  Don’t laugh, my dears; for when I’ve done you may not think this fancy altogether foolish.

“I stepped out into the verandah, and Farmer Hosking pocketed the pruning-knife which he had been using on a bush of jasmine.

“‘This is better than anything I had dreamed of,’ said I.

“’Well, miss, that’s not a wise way of beginning a bargain, if you’ll excuse me.’

“He took no advantage, however, of my admission; and we struck the bargain as we returned down the coombe to his farm, where the hired chaise waited to convey me back to the market town.  I had meant to engage a maid of my own, but now it occurred to me that I might do very well with Mrs. Carkeek.  This, too, was settled in the course of the next day or two, and within the week I had moved into my new home.

“I can hardly describe to you the happiness of my first month at Tresillack; because (as I now believe) if I take the reasons which I had for being happy, one by one, there remains over something which I cannot account for.  I was moderately young, entirely healthy; I felt myself independent and adventurous; the season was high summer, the weather glorious, the garden in all the pomp of June, yet sufficiently unkempt to keep me busy, give me a sharp appetite for meals, and send me to bed in that drowsy stupor which comes of the odours of earth.  I spent the most of my time out of doors, winding up the day’s work as a rule with a walk down the cool valley, along the beach and back.

“I soon found that all housework could be safely left to Mrs. Carkeek.  She did not talk much; indeed her only fault (a rare one in house-keepers) was that she talked too little, and even when I addressed her seemed at times unable to give me her attention.  It was as though her mind strayed off to some small job she had forgotten, and her eyes wore a listening look, as though she waited for the neglected task to speak and remind her.  But as a matter of fact she forgot nothing.  Indeed, my dears, I was never so well attended to in my life.