"I'll never leave her! No; I won't. I telled her so, and said I
could not think how she could find in her heart to give me warning.
I could not have had the face to do it, if I'd been her. I might
ha' been just as good for nothing as Mrs Fitz-Adam's Rosy, who
struck for wages after living seven years and a half in one place.
I said I was not one to go and serve Mammon at that rate; that I
knew when I'd got a good missus, if she didn't know when she'd got
a good servant" -
"But, Martha," said I, cutting in while she wiped her eyes.
"Don't, 'but Martha' me," she replied to my deprecatory tone.
"Listen to reason" -
"I'll not listen to reason," she said, now in full possession of
her voice, which had been rather choked with sobbing. "Reason
always means what someone else has got to say. Now I think what
I've got to say is good enough reason; but reason or not, I'll say
it, and I'll stick to it. I've money in the Savings Bank, and I've
a good stock of clothes, and I'm not going to leave Miss Matty.
No, not if she gives me warning every hour in the day!"
She put her arms akimbo, as much as to say she defied me; and,
indeed, I could hardly tell how to begin to remonstrate with her,
so much did I feel that Miss Matty, in her increasing infirmity,
needed the attendance of this kind and faithful woman.
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