or
us, let us pray that He may soften the hearts of us all;--of him who
has caused us to suffer, and of our own." Mark was not called upon to
reply to this, for he was again disturbed by a servant at the door.
It was the cook this time herself, who had come with a message from
the men of the law. And she had come, be it remembered, not from
any necessity that she as cook should do this line of work; for the
footman, or Mrs. Robarts's maid, might have come as well as she.
But when things are out of course servants are always out of course
also. As a rule, nothing will induce a butler to go into a stable, or
persuade a house-maid to put her hand to a frying-pan. But now that
this new excitement had come upon the household--seeing that the
bailiffs were in possession, and that the chattels were being entered
in a catalogue, everybody was willing to do everything--everything
but his or her own work. The gardener was looking after the dear
children; the nurse was doing the rooms before the bailiffs should
reach them; the groom had gone into the kitchen to get their lunch
ready for them; and the cook was walking about with an inkstand,
obeying all the orders of these great potentates. As far as the
servants were concerned, it may be a question whether the coming of
the bailiffs had not hitherto been regarded as a treat.

"If you please, ma'am," said Jemima cook, "they wishes to know in
which room you'd be pleased to have the inmin-tory took fust. 'Cause,
ma'am, they wouldn't disturb you nor master more than can be avoided.
For their line of life, ma'am, they is very civil--very civil
indeed."

"I suppose they may go into the drawing-room," said Mrs. Robarts, in
a sad low voice. All nice women are proud of their drawing-rooms,
and she was very proud of hers. It had been furnished when money was
plenty with them, immediately after their marriage, and everything
in it was pretty, good, and dear to her. O ladies, who have
drawing-rooms in which the things are pretty, good, and dear to you,
think of what it would be to have two bailiffs rummaging among them
with pen and ink-horn, making a catalogue preparatory to a sheriff's
auction; and all without fault or extravagance of your own! There
were things there that had been given to her by Lady Lufton, by Lady
Meredith, and other friends, and the idea did occur to her that it
might be possible to save them from contamination; but she would not
say a word, lest by so saying she mig