lodgings, and in a little hole of a town like that. Now why not come to my garden-house at Trantridge? There are hardly any poultry now, since my mother's death; but there's the house, as you know it, and the garden. It can be white-washed in a day, and your mother can live there quite comfortably; and I will put the children to a good school. Really I ought to do something for you!'
'But we have already taken the rooms at Kingsbere!' she declared.
'Now, though I have been your enemy, I am your friend, even if you won't believe it. Come to this cottage of mine. We'll get up a regular colony of fowls, and your mother can attend to them excellently; and the children can go to school.'
Tess breathed more and more quickly, and at length she said—
'How do I know that you would do all this? Your views may change—and then—we should be my mother would be—homeless again.'
'Oh no—no. I would guarantee you against such as that in writing, if necessary. Think it over'
