ed at the lower table."

"Don't quote the lower table to me, you vulgar girl! You deserve to be
there, for your manners are not fit for the upper. Everybody knows the
lower table is only for the household"--a word which then meant the
servants--"but those who sit at the upper, and belong to the family,
must hold their tongues. If we did not, strangers might take us for the
gentlewomen."

Jenny silently and earnestly wished they would.

"Now then, go into the parlour and behave yourself!" was the concluding
order from Millicent.

Poor Jenny escaped into the parlour, with a longing wish in her heart
for the old farmhouse kitchen, where nobody thought of putting a lock
upon her lips. She felt she was buying her dignities very dear.

What was she to do all this long Sunday afternoon? Being Sunday, of
course she could not employ herself with needlework; and though she was
fond of music, and was a fairly good performer on the virginals, she did
not dare to make a noise.

She was not much of a reader, and if she had been, there were no books
within her reach but the Bible and a cookery book, on the former of
which, for private reading, Jenny looked as a mere precursor of the
undertaker.

Sunday afternoon and evening, at the farmhouse, were the chief times of
the week for enjoyment. There were sure to be visitors, plenty of talk
and music, and afterwards a dance: for only the Puritans regarded the
Sabbath as anything but a day for amusement, after morning service was
over. Farmer Lavender, though a sensible and respectable man in his
way, was not a Puritan; and though his mother did not much like Sunday
dancing, she had not set her face so determinately against it as to
forbid it to the girls.

The long use of _The Book of Sports_, set forth by authority, and
positively compelling such ways of spending the Sabbath evening, had
blunted the perception of many well-meaning people. The idea was that
people must amuse themselves, or they would spend their leisure time in
plotting treason! and the rulers having been what we should call
Ritualists, they considered that the holiness of the day ended when
Divine service was over, and people were thenceforward entitled to do
anything they liked. Yet there in the Bible was the Lord's command to
"turn away from doing their pleasure on His holy day."

CHAPTER THREE.

THE GOLD THAT GLITTERS.

Jenny, crushed by Millicent, crept into a corner of the parlour, from
wh