The baby-farmer says, 'Give me five pounds and I'll find a
good woman who wants a little one, and you shall hear no more about it.'
Them very words were said to me. I took him away and hoped to be able to
rear him, but if I'm to lose my situations----"
"I should be sorry to prevent anyone from earning their bread----"
"You're a mother yourself, ma'am, and you know what it is."
"Really, it's quite different.... I don't know what you mean, Waters."
"I mean that if I am to lose my situations on account of my baby, I don't
know what will become of me. If I give satisfaction--"
At that moment Mr. Trubner entered. He was a large, stout man, with his
mother's aquiline features. He arrived with his glasses on his nose, and
slightly out of breath.
"Oh, oh, I didn't know, mother," he blurted out, and was about to withdraw
when Mrs. Trubner said--
"This is the new servant whom that lady in Sussex recommended."
Esther saw a look of instinctive repulsion come over his face.
"I'll leave you to settle with her, mother."
"I must speak to you, Harold--I must."
"I really can't; I know nothing of this matter."
He tried to leave the room, and when his mother stopped him he said
testily, "Well, what is it? I am very busy just now, and--" Mrs. Trubner
told Esther to wait in the passage.
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