"He is not very tall, miss, but he has good shoulders; I scarcely know what I should do without him.

Well, now, to begin at the very beginning: I am a Welshwoman, as you may have heard.
My father was a farmer near Abergavenny, holding land under Sir Watkin Williams, an old friend of your family.

My father had too many girls, and my mother scarcely knew what to do with the lot of us.

So some of us went out to service, while the boys staid at home to work the land.

One of my sisters was lady's-maid to Lady Williams, Sir Watkin's wife, at the time when your father came visiting there for the shooting of the moor-fowl, soon after his marriage with your mother.