[00:00.00] Chapter 30, Partings.
[00:02.79] I came to love the wild Moors, the little stone house, and my new friends, Diana and Mary.
[00:09.87] Sinjin was usually away.
[00:12.77] He worked with great energy, caring for the sick and poor and visiting in all weathers.
[00:19.88] But all this hard work and devotion did not seem to make him happy.
[00:27.85] After a month, Diana and Mary were due to go back to their work as governesses.
[00:35.72] Sinjin had news for me.
[00:40.84] With the help of a rich young lady, Miss Rosamond Oliver, he was opening a girl's school for the poor children of Morton.
[00:49.82] Would I be the teacher?
[00:53.62] There was a salary and a furnished cottage.
[00:58.90] I accepted at once.
[01:03.52] "Are you certain?" he asked.
[01:07.45] "It is a village school just teaching rough country girls to read and write, no French, no drawing, no music.
[01:16.44] What will you do with your abilities?"
[01:20.59] "Save them.
[01:22.95] They'll keep."
[01:26.45] "I intend to open the school next week," he said, and looked steadily at me.
[01:32.84] "I think you will not stay long.
[01:36.16] You will grow bored with a country life.
[01:39.26] I do."
[01:41.74] "I am not ambitious," I replied.
[01:48.44] The word ambitious startled him.
[01:51.97] "But I am," he said.
[01:58.36] "Perhaps you have seen it.
[02:01.65] I preach contentment and humility, but I rave with restlessness here.
[02:10.77] Shortly before the sisters were to leave, a letter arrived which brought disappointment to all the family.
[02:19.33] Diana told me what had happened.
[02:23.78] "Our uncle John has died," she said.
[02:28.05] "He was our mother's brother.
[02:31.89] We never knew him because he and my father quarrelled long ago and never made it up.
[02:39.67] All the same, we had hoped to inherit something when he died, just enough for us to live here together instead of working away from home.
[02:51.01] He's left us nothing."
[02:56.41] "The time may come when we can no longer afford to keep Moore house.
[03:04.21] Still, we are no worse off than we were before."
[03:10.18] They took the news bravely.
[03:15.22] The next day, I moved into the school cottage at Morton, and Diana and Mary returned to work.