The stairway in the corner was falling to pieces; he wondered how the woman got up safely to her bed at night; custom, he supposed, can make even old bones agile.
Meanwhile Marcella was unfolding the project of the straw-plaiting workshop that she and Lady Winterbourne were about to start.

Mrs.
Jellison put on her spectacles apparently that she might hear the better, pushed away her dinner in spite of her visitors' civilities, and listened with a bright and beady eye.
"An' yer agoin' to pay me one a sixpence a score, where I now gets ninepence.

And I'll not have to tramp it into town no more--you'll send a man round.

And who is agoin' to pay me, miss, if you'll excuse me asking ?" "Lady Winterbourne and I," said Marcella, smiling.

"We're going to employ this village and two others, and make as good business of it as we can.