gie had no real love for her mother, she was
afraid to disobey her.

Mrs. Howland occupied the drawing-room floor of the said lodgings.
They were kept by a Mrs. Ross, an untidy and by no means too
clean-looking woman. Mrs. Ross kept one small "general," and the
general's name was Tildy. Tildy had bright-red hair and a great many
freckles on her round face. She was squat in figure, and had a
perpetual smut either on her cheek or forehead. In the morning she was
nothing better than a slavey, but in the afternoon she generally
managed to put on a cap with long white streamers and an apron with a
bib. Tildy thought herself very fine in this attire, and she had
donned it now in honor of Miss Howland's arrival. She had no
particular respect for Mrs. Howland, but she had a secret and
consuming admiration for Maggie.

Maggie had been kind to Tildy once or twice, and had even given the
general a cast-off dress of her own. Maggie was plain, and yet people
liked her and listened to her words.

"Oh miss," said Tildy when she opened the front door, "it's me that's
glad to see you! Your ma is upstairs; she's took with a headache, but
you'll find her lyin' down on the sofy in the drawin'-room."

"Then I'll run up at once, Matilda," said Maggie. "And how are you?"
she added good-naturedly. "Oh, you've got your usual smut."

"Indicate the spot, miss, and it shall be moved instancious," said
Tildy. "Seems to me as if never could get rid of smuts, what with the
kitchen-range, and missus bein' so exacsheous, and Tildy here, Tildy
there; Tildy do this, Tildy do t'other, soundin' in my hears all day
long."

"You are a very good girl," said Maggie, "and if I were in your place
I'd have a hundred smuts, not one. But take it off now, do; it's on
the very center of your forehead. And bring me some tea to the
drawing-room, for I'm ever so thirsty."

"You've been in a blessed wondrous castle since, haven't you, missie?"
said Matilda in a voice of suppressed awe.

"I know some young ladies who live in a castle; but I myself have been
at a rectory," said Maggie. "Now, don't keep me. Oh, here's a shilling
for the cabman; give it to him, and get my box taken upstairs."

Maggie flew up the steep, badly carpeted stairs to the hideous
drawing-room. Her spirits had been very low; but, somehow, Tildy had
managed to revive them. Tildy was plain, and very much lower than
Maggie in the social scale; but Tildy admired her, and because of that
admir