id thinking it strange.

"I had a motive for making friends with Mrs. Attwood," Magdalen went on.
"She is a widow, with a large family of daughters. Her daughters are all
in service. One of them is an under-housemaid in the service of Admiral
Bartram, at St. Crux-in-the-Marsh. I found that out from Mrs. Attwood's
master; and as soon as I arrived at the discovery, I privately
determined to make Mrs. Attwood's acquaintance. Stranger still, is it
not?"

Louisa began to look a little uneasy. Her mistress's manner was at
variance with her mistress's words--it was plainly suggestive of
something startling to come.

"What attraction Mrs. Attwood finds in my society," Magdalen continued,
"I cannot presume to say. I can only tell you she has seen better days;
she is an educated person; and she may like my society on that
account. At any rate, she has readily met my advances toward her. What
attraction I find in this good woman, on my side, is soon told. I have a
great curiosity--an unaccountable curiosity, you will think--about
the present course of household affairs at St. Crux-in-the-Marsh. Mrs.
Attwood's daughter is a good girl, and constantly writes to her mother.
Her mother is proud of the letters and proud of the girl, and is ready
enough to talk about her daughter and her daughter's place. That is Mrs.
Attwood's attraction to _me._ You understand, so far?"

Yes--Louisa understood. Magdalen went on. "Thanks to Mrs. Attwood and
Mrs. Attwood's daughter," she said, "I know some curious particulars
already of the household at St. Crux. Servants' tongues and servants'
letters--as I need not tell _you_--are oftener occupied with their
masters and mistresses than their masters and mistresses suppose.
The only mistress at St. Crux is the housekeeper. But there is a
master--Admiral Bartram. He appears to be a strange old man, whose
whims and fancies amuse his servants as well as his friends. One of his
fancies (the only one we need trouble ourselves to notice) is, that he
had men enough about him when he was living at sea, and that now he is
living on shore, he will be waited on by women-servants alone. The one
man in the house is an old sailor, who has been all his life with his
master--he is a kind of pensioner at St. Crux, and has little or nothing
to do with the housework. The other servants, indoors, are all women;
and instead of a footman to wait on him at dinner, the admiral has a
parlor-maid. The parlor-maid now at St.