She is whitewashing and papering the rooms.

She is a handy woman, is Ma'am, and she says we shall not know the place when we go back.

I never knew such a woman for scrubbing and cleaning--it seems to make her happy somehow." Malcolm made frequent visits to Rotherwood to see Caleb and Kit, and he generally paid them on the days when Elizabeth was at the schools, so that he could walk back with her through the woodlands.
The first time he did this Elizabeth seemed rather surprised, though she offered no objection; but after that she took it as a matter of course, and chatted with him on all manner of subjects.

She listened very kindly when Malcolm sounded her on the subject of Kit, and made all sorts of impossible plans for the child's future; and though she laughed at him good-humouredly, and told him that he was a visionary, impracticable person, she soon became serious and brought her shrewd common-sense and feminine wits to his assistance.

And so it was that one day he made a proposition that nearly took Caleb's breath away.
Kit must certainly not go back to Todmorden's Lane until she was stronger, he remarked.