Mrs.Whitney did not give her visitor time to begin.
"I know what you have called about, Mrs.Ellison, and I don't want to talk about it with you.

The squire has grievously wronged my boy.

I wouldn't have believed it of him, but he's done it; so now, ma'm, I give a week's notice of this house, and here's my rent up to that time, and I will send you the key when I go.

And now, ma'm, as I don't want any words about it, I think it will be better if you go, at once." Mrs.Ellison hesitated a moment.

Never, from the time she entered the village as the squire's wife, had she been thus spoken to; but she saw at once, in Mrs.Whitney's face, that it were better not to reply to her; and that her authority as the squire's wife had, for once, altogether vanished.