She paused, and looked around. A man who had seen her from the window of the workshops behind, came out and respectfully lifted his hat to her. It was the first time she had been seen walking outside the house since her father's death.
'Strooden, could the Old House be made a decent residence of, without much trouble?' she inquired.
The mechanic considered, and spoke as each consideration completed itself.
'You don't forget, ma'am, that two-thirds of the place is already pulled down, or gone to ruin?' 'Yes; I know.' 'And that what's left may almost as well be, ma'am.' 'Why may it?' ''Twas so cut up inside when they made it into cottages, that the whole carcase is full of cracks.' 'Still by pulling down the inserted partitions, and adding a little outside, it could be made to answer the purpose of an ordinary six or eight-roomed house?' 'Yes, ma'am.' 'About what would it cost?' was the question which had invariably come next in every communication of this kind to which the superintending workman had been a party during his whole experience.
To his surprise, Miss Aldclyffe did not put it. The man thought her object in altering an old house must have been an unusually absorbing one not to prompt what was so instinctive in owners as hardly to require any prompting at all.
'Thank you: that's sufficient, Strooden,' she said. 'You will understand that it is not unlikely some alteration may be made here in a short time, with reference to the management of the affairs.' Strooden said 'Yes,' in a complex voice, and looked uneasy.
'During the life of Captain Aldclyffe, with you as the foreman of works, and he himself as his own steward, everything worked well.
But now it may be necessary to have a steward, whose management will encroach further upon things which have hitherto been left in your hands than did your late master's. What I mean is, that he will directly and in detail superintend all.' 'Then--I shall not be wanted, ma'am?' he faltered.
'O yes; if you like to stay on as foreman in the yard and workshops only. I should be sorry to lose you. However, you had better consider. I will send for you in a few days.' Leaving him to suspense, and all the ills that came in its train --distracted application to his duties, and an undefined number of sleepless nights and untasted dinners, Miss Aldclyffe looked at her watch and returned to the House. She was about to keep an appointment with her solicitor, Mr. Nyttleton, who had been to Budmouth, and was coming to Knapwater on his way back to London.