expostulated their hostess.

"I don't suppose you ever saw her crying, as I did, while she was setting
the dinner table. It was last evening. She had been on her feet more than
usual yesterday. The doctor tells her that her arches are breaking down;
but she cannot afford to have arch supports made at present, because her
mother needs all the money Katie can earn."

"Mercy!" gasped Bess. "Did you ever see such a girl as Nan? She already
knows all the private history of that girl."

"No, I do not," said Nan, with some indignation. "I never asked her a
thing. She just told me. Lots of girls who have to go out to service are
troubled with their arches breaking down. Especially when the floors are
polished wood with nothing but rugs laid down. Bare floors may be very
sanitary; but they are hard on the feet."

"There you go!" sighed Bess, "with a lot of erudite stuff that we don't
understand. I wish you wouldn't."

"I know why Katie, and other people as well, love to tell Nan all their
troubles," said Grace, softly. "Because she is sympathetic. I am afraid
_I_ ought to have known about poor Katie's feet."

The very next day the little serving maid was sent by Mrs. Mason to the
orthopedic shoe shop to be measured for her arch supports and shoes. But
it was Nan whom poor Katie caught alone in a dark corner of the hall when
she came back, and humbly kissed.

"An' bless yer swate heart, Miss, for 'twas yer kind thought stirred up
Miss Grace to tell the mistress. Bless yer swate heart again, I say!"

Nan kept this to herself, of course; but it pleased her very much that
the word she had dropped had had such a splendid result. Grace, she knew,
was a lovable girl and never exacting with the servants; and Mrs. Mason
was good to her people, too. But it was a rather perfunctory sort of
goodness, spurred by little real knowledge of their individual needs.

After this, it was quite noticeable that Grace was even more considerate
of Katie and the other maids. Nan Sherwood had had little experience with
domestic servants; but the appreciation of _noblesse oblige_ was strong
within her soul.

The girls' time, both day and evening, was fully occupied. The Masons'
was a large household, and there seemed to be always company. It was
almost like living in a hotel, only above and over all the freedom and
gaiety of the life there, was the impression that it was a real _home_,
and that the Mason family lived a very intimate existence, a