and looked her little face over in a motherly
fashion.

"An' thee, too!" she said. "Tha'rt grown
near as hearty as our 'Lizabeth Ellen. I'll warrant
tha'rt like thy mother too. Our Martha told
me as Mrs. Medlock heard she was a pretty
woman. Tha'lt be like a blush rose when tha'
grows up, my little lass, bless thee."

She did not mention that when Martha came
home on her "day out" and described the plain
sallow child she had said that she had no confidence
whatever in what Mrs. Medlock had heard.
"It doesn't stand to reason that a pretty woman
could be th' mother o' such a fou' little lass," she
had added obstinately.

Mary had not had time to pay much attention
to her changing face. She had only known that
she looked "different" and seemed to have a
great deal more hair and that it was growing very
fast. But remembering her pleasure in looking
at the Mem Sahib in the past she was glad to
hear that she might some day look like her.

Susan Sowerby went round their garden with
them and was told the whole story of it and shown
every bush and tree which had come alive. Colin
walked on one side of her and Mary on the other.
Each of them kept looking up at her comfortable
rosy face, secretly curious about the delightful

[[348]]

p347 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p348w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p349

v?