I had a shrewd suspicion of the thief--a suspicion which was afterwards completely justified--and indignantly championed Antoinette's cause.
But Antoinette, coming from a village some eighty miles away, was a stranger and an alien.

I was her only friend.

It ended in my inviting her to come to England, the land of the free and the refuge of the downtrodden and oppressed, and become my housekeeper.

She accepted, with smiles and tears.

And they were great big smiles, that went into creases all over her fat red face, forming runnels for the great big tears which dropped off at unexpected angles.