lief that this girl or woman has seen better days; and
if she has, a room to herself will be a necessity of her case,--poor
thing!"

"I don't know," said my mother hesitatingly. "I never wish to
employ in my service those above their station,--they always make
trouble; and there is something in this woman's air and manner and
pronunciation that makes me feel as if she had been born and bred
in cultivated society."

"Supposing she has," said I; "it's quite evident that she, for some
reason, means to conform to this position. You seldom have a girl
apply for work who comes dressed with such severe simplicity; her
manner is retiring, and she seemed perfectly willing and desirous to
undertake any of the things which you mentioned as among her daily
tasks."

On the afternoon of that day our new assistant came, and my
mother was delighted with the way she set herself at work. The
china-closet, desecrated and disordered in the preceding reigns
of terror and confusion, immediately underwent a most quiet but
thorough transformation. Everything was cleaned, brightened, and
arranged with a system and thoroughness which showed, as my mother
remarked, a good head; and all this was done so silently and
quietly that it seemed like magic. By the time we came down to
breakfast the next morning, we perceived that the reforms of our
new prime minister had extended everywhere. The dining-room was
clean, cool, thoroughly dusted, and freshly aired; the tablecloth
and napkins were smooth and clean; the glass glittered like
crystal, and the silver wore a cheerful brightness. Added to
this were some extra touches of refinement, which I should call
table coquetry. The cold meat was laid out with green fringes of
parsley; and a bunch of heliotrope, lemon verbena, and mignonette,
with a fresh rosebud, all culled from our little back yard, stood in
a wineglass on my mother's waiter.

"Well, Mary, you have done wonders," said my mother, as she took her
place; "your arrangements restore appetite to all of us."

Mary received our praises with a gracious smile, yet with a composed
gravity which somewhat puzzled me. She seemed perfectly obliging and
amiable, yet there was a serious reticence about her that quite
piqued my curiosity. I could not help recurring to the idea of a lady
in disguise; though I scarcely knew to what circumstance about her I
could attach the idea. So far from the least effort to play the lady,
her dress was, in homely pla