As it was, Richardson sustained her faith in herself; Richardson reminded her that Pamela's master had hesitated, and that Pamela's Virtue had not earned its reward on easy terms.

She stole another look at the doctor.

The eloquence of women's eyes, so widely and justly celebrated in poetry and prose, now spoke in the cook's eyes.

They said, "Marry me, dear sir, and you shall never have underdone mutton again." The hearts of other savages have been known to soften under sufficient influences--why should the scientific savage, under similar pressure, not melt a little too?
The doctor took up the talk again: he made a kind allusion to the cook's family circumstances.
"When you first came here, I think you told me you had no relations ?" "I am an orphan, sir." "And you had been some time out of a situation, when I engaged you ?" "Yes, sir; my poor little savings were nearly at an end!" Could he resist that pathetic picture of the orphan's little savings--framed, as it were, in a delicately-designed reference to her fellow-servant in the story?
"I was as poor as Pamela," she suggested softly.
"And as virtuous," Benjulia added.
The cook's eloquent eyes said, "Thank you, sir." He laid down his pipe.

That was a good sign, surely?
He drew his chair nearer to her.