serving in the music shop. No loud laughing, no capers, no comic
songs, and no dancing."

"And am I to begin at once by asking for the money to be--what do you
call it, transferred?"

"No; you are not on any account to say a word about the money; you are
to go on living there without hinting at the money--without showing
any desire to discuss the subject--perhaps for months, until there
can't be the shadow of a doubt that you are the old woman's cousin.
You are to make much of her, flatter her, cocker her up, find out all
the family secrets, and get the length of her foot; but you are not
to say one single word about the money. As for your manners, I'm not
afraid of them, because when you like, you can look and talk like a
countess."

"I know now." She got up and changed her face so that it became at
once subdued and quiet, like a quiet serving-girl behind a counter.
"So, is that modest enough, Joe? And as for singing, I shall sing for
her, but not music-hall trash. This kind of thing. Listen."

There was a piano in the room, and she sat down and sang to her own
accompaniment, with a sweet, low voice, one of the soft, sad German
songs.

"That'll do," cried Joe. "Hang me! what a clever girl you are, Lotty!
That's the kind of thing the swells like. As for me, give me ten
minutes of Jolly Nash. But you know how to pull 'em in, Lotty."

It was approaching twelve, the hour when they were due. Lotty retired
and arrayed herself in her quietest and most sober dress, a costume in
some brown stuff, with a bonnet to match. She put on her best gloves
and boots, having herself felt the inferiority of the shop-girl to the
lady in those minor points, and she modified and mitigated her fringe,
which, she knew, was rather more exaggerated than young ladies in
society generally wear.

"You're not afraid, Lotty?" said Joe, when at last she was ready to
start.

"Afraid? Not I, Joe. Come along. I couldn't look quieter, not if I was
to make up as I do in the evening as a Quakeress. Come along. Oh, Joe,
it will be awful dull! Don't forget to send word to the hall that I am
ill. Afraid? Not I!" She laughed, but rather hysterically.

There would be, however, she secretly considered, some excitement when
it came to the finding out, which would happen, she was convinced, in
a very few hours. In fact, she had no faith at all in the story being
accepted and believed by anybody; to be sure, she herself had been
trained, as ladies in sho