for all these
reasons, I was inclined to look with increasing wonder on a being in
female form who could so far defy the tyranny of custom as to dress in
a convenient and comfortable manner, adapted to the work which she
undertook to perform. A good-looking girl without crinoline had a sort
of unworldly freshness of air that really constituted a charm. If it
had been a piece of refined coquetry,--as certainly it was not,--it
could not have been better planned.

Nothing could be more perfectly proper than the demeanor of this girl
in relation to all the proprieties of her position. She seemed to give
her whole mind to it with an anxious exactness; but she appeared to
desire no relations with the family other than those of a mere
business character. It was impossible to draw her into conversation.
If a good-natured remark was addressed to her on any subject such as
in kindly disposed families is often extended as an invitation to a
servant to talk a little with an employer, Mary met it with the
briefest and gravest response that was compatible with propriety, and
with a definite and marked respectfulness of demeanor which had
precisely the effect of throwing us all at a distance, like
ceremonious politeness in the intercourse of good society.

"I cannot make out our Mary," said I to my mother; "she is a perfect
treasure, but who or what do you suppose she is?"

"I cannot tell you," said my mother. "All I know is, she understands
her business perfectly, and does it exactly; but she no more belongs
to the class of common servants than I do."

"Does she associate with the other girls?"

"Not at all--except at meal-times, and when about her work."

"I should think that would provoke the pride of sweet Erin," said I.

"One would think so," said my mother; "but she certainly has managed
her relations with them with a curious kind of tact. She always treats
them with perfect consideration and politeness, talks with them during
the times that they necessarily are thrown together in the most
affable and cheerful manner, and never assumes any airs of supremacy
with them. Her wanting a room to herself gave them at first an idea
that she would hold herself aloof from them, and in fact, for the
first few days, there was a subterranean fire in the kitchen ready to
burst forth; but now all that is past, and in some way or other,
without being in the least like any of them, she has contrived to make
them her fast friends. I foun