" I felt that I was cruel to a whole
neighborhood in curtailing her liberty in this most important
season for harvesting the different wild herbs that were so much
counted upon to ease their winter ails.
"Well, dear," she said sorrowfully, "I've took great advantage
o' your bein' here. I ain't had such a season for years, but I
have never had nobody I could so trust. All you lack is a few
qualities, but with time you'd gain judgment an' experience, an' be
very able in the business. I'd stand right here an' say it to
anybody."
Mrs. Todd and I were not separated or estranged by the change
in our business relations; on the contrary, a deeper intimacy
seemed to begin. I do not know what herb of the night it was that
used sometimes to send out a penetrating odor late in the evening,
after the dew had fallen, and the moon was high, and the cool air
came up from the sea. Then Mrs. Todd would feel that she must talk
to somebody, and I was only too glad to listen. We both fell under
the spell, and she either stood outside the window, or made an
errand to my sitting-room, and told, it might be very commonplace
news of the day, or, as happened one misty summer night, all that
lay deepest in her heart.
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