place as housekeeper at Misselthwaite Manor and the only way in which
she could keep it was to do at once what Mr. Archibald Craven told her
to do. She never dared even to ask a question.
Captain Lennox and his wife died of the cholera, Mr. Craven had said
in his short, cold way. Captain Lennox was my wife s brother and I am
their daughter s guardian. The child is to be brought here. You must go
to London and bring her yourself.
So she packed her small trunk and made the journey.
Mary sat in her corner of the railway carriage and looked plain and
fretful. She had nothing to read or to look at, and she had folded her
thin little black-gloved hands in her lap. Her black dress made her
look yellower than ever, and her limp light hair straggled from under
her black crepe hat.
A more marred-looking young one I never saw in my life, Mrs. Medlock
thought. (Marred is a Yorkshire word and means spoiled and pettish.)
She had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything; and
at last she got tired of watching her and began to talk in a brisk,
hard voice.
I suppose I may as well tell you something about where you are going
to, she said. Do you know anything about your uncle?
No, said Mary.
Never heard your father and mother talk about him?
No, said Mary frowning. She frowned because she remembered that her
father and mother had never talked to her about anything in particular.
Certainly they had never told her things.
Humph, muttered Mrs. Medlock, staring at her queer, unresponsive
little face. She did not say any more for a few moments and then she
began again.
I suppose you might as well be told something to prepare you. You are
going to a queer place.
11