p my sharp relishes for our own private table. You
might discriminate, Bel! I know I've got a kind of a pert,
snappy-sounding name,--just like the outside of me; but if you stop
to look at it, it isn't _Saucebox_, but _Sensebox_! They're related,
sometimes, and they ain't bad together; but yet, apart, they're
different."

CHAPTER XXVII.

BEL BREE'S CRUSADE: THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM.

Mrs. Frank Scherman's front door-bell rang. Of course she had to go
down and open it herself. When she did so, she let in two girls
whose pretty faces, bright with a sort of curious expectation, met
hers in a way by which she could hardly guess their station or
errand.

She did not know them; they might be anybody's daughters, yet they
hardly looked like _technical_ "young ladies."

They stepped directly in without asking; they moved aside till she
had closed the door against the keen November wind; then Bel said,--

"We came to see what help you wanted, Mrs. Scherman. Miss Ledwith
told us."

How did Bel know so quickly that it was Mrs. Scherman? There was
something in her instant conclusion and her bright directness that
amused Asenath, while it bore its own letter of recommendation so
far.

"Do you mean you wished to inquire for yourselves,--or for either of
you?" she asked, as she led the way up-stairs.

"I must bring you up where the children are," she said. "I cannot
leave them."

They were all in the large back room, with western windows, over the
parlor. The doors through a closet passage stood open into Mrs.
Scherman's own. There were blocks, and linen picture-books, and a
red tin wagon full of small rag-dolls, about on the floor. Baby
Karen was rolled up in a blanket on the middle of a bed.

"You see, this is the family,--except Mr. Scherman. I want two good,
experienced girls for general work, and another to help me here in
the nursery. I say two for general work, because I want some things
equally divided, and others exchanged willingly upon occasion. Do
you want places for yourselves?"

She paused to repeat the question, hardly sure of the possibility.
These girls did not look much like it. There was no half-suspicious,
half-aggressive expression on their faces even yet. It was time for
it; time for her own cross-examination to begin, according to all
precedent, if they were really looking out for themselves. Why
didn't they sit up straight and firm, with their hands in their
muffs and their eyes on hers