’Yes, my Lady; he was so poorly that I couldn’t but let him lie down.’

‘And you have not sent him to the workhouse yet?’

’Why, no, not yet, my Lady; I thought I would wait to see how he is to-morrow.’

‘You had better take care, Mary,’ said Lady Jane.  ’You’ll have him too ill to be moved; and then what will you do? a great lad of that age, and with illness enough in the house already!’ She sighed, and it was not said unkindly; but Mrs. King answered with something about his being so good a lad, and so friendless.  And Miss Jane exclaimed, ‘O Grandmamma, it does seem so hard to send him to the workhouse!’

‘Do not talk like a silly child, my dear,’ said Lady Jane.  ’Mary is much too sensible to think of saddling herself with such a charge—­ not fit for her, nor the children either—­even if the parish made it worth her while, which it never will.  The Union is intended to provide for such cases of destitution; and depend on it, the youth looks to nothing else.’

‘No, my Lady,’ said Mrs. King; ’he is so patient and meek about it, that it goes to one’s very heart.’

‘Ay, ay,’ said the old lady; ’but don’t be soft-hearted and weak, Mary.  It is not what I expect of you, as a sensible woman, to be harbouring a mere vagrant whom you know nothing about, and injuring your own children.’

‘Indeed, my Lady,’ began Mrs. King, ’I’ve known the poor boy these four months, and so has Mr. Cope; and he is as steady and serious a boy as ever lived.’

‘Very likely,’ said Lady Jane; ’and I am sure I would do anything for him—­give him work when he is out again, or send him with a paper to the county hospital.  Eh?’

But the county hospital was thirty miles off; and the receiving day was not till Saturday.  That would not do.

‘Well,’ added Lady Jane, ’I’ll drive home directly, and send Price with the spring covered cart to take him in to Elbury.  That will be better for him than jolting in the open cart they would send for him.’

’Why, thank you, my Lady, but I—­I had passed my word that he should not go to-day.’

Lady Jane made a gesture as if Mary King were a hopelessly weak good-natured woman; and shaking her head at her with a sort of lady-like vexation, ordered the coachman to drive on.

My Lady was put out.  No wonder.  She was a very sensible, managing woman herself, and justly and up-rightly kind to all her dependants; and she expected every one else to be sternly and wisely kind in the same pattern.  Mrs. King was one whom she highly esteemed for her sense and good judgment, and she was the more provoked with her for any failure in these respects.  If she had known Paul as the Kings did, it is probable she might have felt like them.  Not knowing him, nor knowing the secrets of Elbury Union, she thought it Mrs. King’s clear duty to sacrifice him for her children’s sake.  Moreover, Lady Jane had strict laws against lodgers—­the greatest kindness she could do her tenants, though often against their will.  So to have her model woman receiving a strange boy into her house, even under the circumstances, was beyond bearing.