of its circumstances that when she related
them in her old age the blood of her
hearers would curdle in their veins --
-- 'It was in May' she would say 'just abou at
the time of the apple-blossoms I was wetting
the bleaching linen that was bleaching when
a smallish girl came into the gate, & up the lane
& straight on to me, & asked said to
me without
raising her eyes "where is General your master?"
I must speak with him" -- We are not
about to detail the girl's story, but in
so far as it elicited Mumbet's qualities
It was one of horrors from beginning to
end -- "I told her" she said that my master
was absent -- that he would not come
home before night -- "Then I must stay" she
said, "for I must speak with him," -- I set
down my watering-pot & told her to come