When it was either of the
Peckovers who sent her, she knew that reprimand was inevitable on
her return, be she ever so speedy; but her nature was incapable
alike of rebellion and of that sullen callousness which would have
come to the aid of most girls in her position. She did not serve her
tyrants with willingness, for their brutality filled her with a
sense of injustice; yet the fact that she was utterly dependent upon
them for her livelihood, that but for their grace--as they were
perpetually reminding her--she would have been a workhouse child,
had a mitigating effect upon the bitterness she could not wholly
subdue.
There was, however, another reason why she sped eagerly on her
present mission. The man to whom she was conveying Mrs. Hewett's
message was one of the very few persons who had ever treated her
with human kindness. She had known him by name and by sight for some
years, and since her mother's death (she was eleven when that
happened) he had by degrees grown to represent all that she
understood by the word 'friend.' It was seldom that words were
exchanged between them; the opportunity came scarcely oftener than
once a month; but whenever it did come, it made a bright moment in
her existence.
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