Then there was a scuffle and a howl, as if the child were being forcibly
carried away. Aurelia sprang out of bed, for sunshine was flooding the
room, and she felt accountable for tardiness. She had made some progress
in dressing, when again little hands were on the lock, little feet
kicking the door, and little voices calling, "Let me in."

She opened the door, and white nightgowns, all tumbled back one over the
other.

"My little cousins," she said, "come and kiss me."

One came forward and lifted up a sweet little pale face, but the other
two stood, each with a finger in the mouth, right across the threshold,
in a manner highly inconvenient to Aurelia, who was only in her stiff
stays and dimity petticoat, with a mass of hair hanging down below her
waist. She turned to them with arms out-stretched, but this put them
instantly to the rout, and they ran off as fast as their bare pink feet
could carry them, till one stumbled, and lay with her face down and her
plump legs kicking in the air. Aurelia caught her up, but the capture
produced a powerful yell, and out, all at once hurried into
the corridor, Mrs. Aylward, a tidy maid servant, a stout, buxom
countrywoman, and a rough girl, scarcely out of bed, but awake enough
to snatch the child out of the young lady's arms, and carry her off.
The housekeeper began scolding vigorously all round, and Aurelia escaped
into her room, where she completed her toilette, looking out into a
garden below, laid out in the formal Dutch fashion, with walks and beds
centring in a fountain, the grass plats as sharply defined as possible,
and stiff yews and cypresses dotted at regular intervals or forming
straight alleys. She felt strange and shy, but the sunshine, the
cheerfulness, and the sight of the children, had reassured her, and when
she had said her morning prayer, she had lost the last night's sense of
hopeless dreariness and unprotectedness. When another knock came,
she opened the door cheerfully, but there was a chill in meeting Mrs.
Aylward's grave, cold face, and stiff salutation. "If you are ready,
madam," she said, "I will show you to the south parlour, where the
children will eat with you."

Aurelia ventured to ask about her baggage, and was told that it would be
forwarded from Brentford. Mrs. Aylward then led the way to a wide stone
staircase, with handsome carved balusters, leading down into the great
hall, with doors opening from all sides. All was perfectly empty, and so