"Oh," she thought in her heart, "I raised his wages so's he could marry
her--for months this has been going on ... the field down by Beggar's
Bush ... Oh, I could kill her!" Then shouting into the yard--"Martha
Tilden! Martha Tilden!"

"I'm coming, Miss Joanna," Martha's soft drawly voice increased her
bitterness; her own, compared with it, sounded harsh, empty,
inexperienced. Martha's voice was full of the secrets of love--the
secrets of Dick Socknersh's love.

"Come into the dairy," she said hoarsely.

Martha came and stood before her. She evidently knew what was ahead, for
she looked pale and a little scared, and yet she had about her a strange
air of confidence ... though not so strange, after all, since she
carried Dick Socknersh's child, and her memory was full of his caresses
and the secrets of his love ... thus bravely could Joanna herself have
faced an angry world....

"You leave my service at once," she said.

Martha began to cry.

"You know what for?"

"Yes, Miss Joanna."

"I wonder you've had the impudence to go about as you've done--eating my
food and taking my wages, while all the time you've been carrying on