Dale, as the proper
place to go in all moments of embarrassment or tribulation. Thus the
flagged path by the walnut tree, the wooden bench beneath the window,
and the open kitchen door, tended to become a sort of court where
Mavis had to listen to an ever-increasing number of applicants.
It used to be: "Muvver hey sent me to tell you at once, Mum, she isn't
no better but a good deal worse, and the doctor hev ordered her some
strong soup for to nourish her stren'th;" or "Mr. Scull's compliments,
and might he hev the loan of some butter agin;" or "Mrs. Craddock
wishes you, Mum, to read this letter which she hey written out of her
sickbed, and every word of it is no more than the truth, as I can
vouch for. Mr. Craddock in his cups last night punished her pore face
somethin' frightful. She can't go to her work, and there's not so much
as a bite of bread or a sip of milk in the house."
Mrs. Goudie declared that Mavis was often imposed upon; and, although
Mavis herself wished to give wisely rather than blindly, endeavoring
to govern warm impulse with cold reason, certainly very few people
went away from the Vine-Pits back door empty-handed.
The gentry, in their turn, learned the commonly accepted fact that Mr.
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