niece curiously as
she gathered up the dishes and carried them to the kitchen, where she
took her own breakfast with the cook, who instructed her in her duties
as well as she could.

"She is mighty queer and mighty particular, but if you get the soft side
of her you are all right," she said to Bessie, who moved about the house
almost as handily as if she had lived there all her life.

Never had the china been washed more carefully or quickly, or the
furniture better dusted, or the table better arranged for dinner, and
had Bessie been a trained servant from the queen's household she could
not have waited upon her aunt more deftly or respectfully than she did.
But the strain upon her nerves began to tell upon her, and after her
dishes were washed, and she was assured by the cook that there was
nothing more for her to do until tea-time, she went to her room for a
little rest, just as a carriage dashed up to the door, and the bell rang
fiercely. Scarcely, however, had Bessie reached the hall on her way to
answer the ring, when her aunt, who, it seemed to her, was everywhere
present, darted out from some quarter, and seizing her by the shoulder
said, quickly:

"Go back to your room. I'll let her in myself."

Was she angry, and if so, at what? Bessie wondered, as she returned to
her room, and sitting down by the bed laid her tired head upon the
pillow, while a few tears rolled down her cheeks as she recalled her
aunt's sharp tones. Was this to be all the commendation she was to
receive for the pains she had taken to please? It was hard, and there
began to steal over her a feeling of utter hopelessness and
homesickness, when suddenly a sound came up to her from the parlor
below, which made her start and listen as to something familiar. Surely
she had heard that loud, uncultivated voice before, and after a moment
it came to her--the tea party in the dear old garden at home when Mrs.
Rossiter-Browne was the guest, and had so disgusted her with her
vulgarity. And this was Mrs. Browne, who had come in state to call, and
who, after declaring the weather hot enough to kill cattle, and saying
that Gusty was in Saratogy, and had had twelve new dresses made to take
with her, spoke next of Allen and Lord Hardy, who were in Idaho, or
Omaho, or some other _ho_, Mrs. Browne could not remember which. At the
mention of Lord Hardy's name all Bessie's old life seemed to come back
to her, and she lived again through the dreary days at the c