"So if there's anything I can do while I'm here, dearest, . . . such as
looking after the house and the servants. . . . No, no, don't deny me;
it will be a pleasure, I assure you. . . . So we'll say that's settled,
shall we? . . . You dear, sweet darling creature!"
I was too much out of heart to care what happened, but inside two days I
realised that Alma had taken possession of the house, and was ordering
and controlling everything.
Apparently this pleased such of the servants as had anything to gain by
it--the housekeeper in particular--for Alma was no skinflint and she was
making my husband's money flow like water, but it was less agreeable to
my maid, who said:
"This is a nice place to be sure, where the mistress takes no interest
in anything, and the guest walks over everybody. She'll walk over the
mistress herself before long--mark my word but she will."
It would be about a week after our arrival at Castle Raa that Price came
to my room to say that a priest was asking for me, and he was such a
strange-looking thing that she was puzzled to know if his face was that
of a child, a woman or a dear old man.
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