"Then I suppose the balance of what your mother left you forms a little
addition to your pension, and to what poor Cecil was able to leave you?"
As the other hesitated, Miss Crofton went on, in a very friendly
tone:--"I hope you won't think it interfering that I should speak as I am
doing? I expected to find you much less comfortably circumstanced, and I
was going to propose that I should increase what I had feared would be a
very small income, by two hundred a year."
Enid was as much touched by this unexpected generosity as it was in
her to be, and it was with an accent of real sincerity that she
exclaimed:--"Oh, Alice, you _are_ kind! Of course two hundred a year
would be a _great_ help. Nothing remains of what my mother left me. But
you must not think that I'm extravagant. I sold a lot of things, and that
made it possible for me to take over The Trellis House exactly as you see
it. But even during the very few days I have been here I have begun to
find how expensive life can be, even in a village like this."
"All right," said Miss Crofton. She got up from her easy chair with a
quick movement, for she was still a vigorous woman. "Then that's settled!
I'll give you a cheque for L100 to-day--and one every six months as
long that is, as you're a widow.
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