u will! To which?"

"To both; in for a penny, in for a pound."

So to church they went; and Staines, whose motto was "Hoc age," minded
his book. Rosa had intervals of attention to the words, but found plenty
of time to study the costumes.

During the Litany in bustled Clara, the housemaid, with a white jacket
on so like her mistress's, that Rosa clutched her own convulsively,
to see whether she had not been skinned of it by some devilish
sleight-of-hand.

No, it was on her back; but Clara's was identical.

In her excitement, Rosa pinched Staines, and with her nose, that went
like a water-wagtail, pointed out the malefactor. Then she whispered,
"Look! How dare she? My very jacket! Earrings too, and brooches, and
dresses her hair like mine."

"Well, never mind," whispered Staines. "Sunday is her day. We have
got all the week to shine. There, don't look at her--'From all evil
speaking, lying, and slandering'"--

"I can't keep my eyes off her."

"Attend to the Litany. Do you know, this is really a beautiful
composition?"

"I'd rather do the work fifty times over myself."

"Hush! people will hear you."

When they walked home after church, Staines tried to divert her from the
consideration of her wrongs; but no--all other topics were too flat by
comparison.

She mourned the hard fate of mistresses--unfortunate creatures that
could not do without servants.

"Is not that a confession that servants are good, useful creatures,
with all their faults? Then as to the mania for dress, why, that is not
confined to them. It is the mania of the sex. Are you free from it?"

"No, of course not. But I am a lady, if you please."

"Then she is your intellectual inferior, and more excusable. Anyway, it
is wise to connive at a thing we can't help."

"What keep her, after this? no, never."

"My dear, pray do not send her away, for she is tidy in the house, and
quick, and better than any one we have had this last six months; and you
know you have tried a great number."

"To hear you speak, one would think it was my fault that we have so many
bad servants."

"I never said it was your fault; but I THINK, dearest, a little more
forbearance in trifles"--

"Trifles! trifles--for a mistress and maid to be seen dressed alike in
the same church? You take the servants' part against me, that you do."

"You should not say that, even in jest. Come now, do you really think
a jacket like yours can make the servant look like you, or