be put upon, Jessie, after
all your work at Miss Lee's. You shall not be made to sit at your needle
all the evening. It is not good for your health, and so I shall tell
Grace."

Jessie thanked her mother, but had little hope that she would be able to
hold out against one so determined as her sister. Neither mother nor
daughter would have broken her heart if Grace's application had come too
late, but no such thing! It had been dark about an hour when she was
driven up to the door in a dog-cart, out of which huge rolls of linen
were lifted, enough, as it seemed, to stock the shop. Grace shook hands
with the smart groom who had driven her, thanked him, and came in in
high spirits.

Mrs. Robson had been most gracious! She said she had feared being
obliged to put up with mere warehouse work, and that she could not bear;
but country people were so lazy and disobliging. It was not what she was
used to.

Grace had been taken up into the young lady's own room, and oh! what she
had to tell about tall cheval glasses, and ivory-backed brushes, and
rose-coloured curtains, and marble-topped washhand-stands, and a bed and
wardrobe of inlaid wood, with beautiful birds and flowers, and
gold-topped bottles and boxes, and downy chairs! The description was
enough to last a week, and indeed it did, for fresh details came out
continually. It almost made Jessie jealous for Miss Manners. Once when
she had been caught in a sudden shower and arrived wet through she had
been taken up to Miss Manners's bed-room to take off her boots and put
on slippers.

And there was only a plain little iron bed, uncurtained, and the floor
was bare except for rugs at the hearth and bed-side, and the furniture
was nothing but white dimity. The chimney ornaments and the
washhand-stand looked like those in a nursery--as indeed they well
might, for they had belonged to Miss Dora nearly all her life; they all
had stories belonging to them, were keepsakes from dear friends, and she
would not have given one, no, not the shell cat with an ear off, nor the
little picture made of coloured sand, for Miss Robson's finest gilded
box, unless indeed that had come in the same way.

And there were two prints on the walls, very grave and beautiful, which
made one feel like being in Church, and so did the illuminated texts,
though all were not equally well done, some being painted by her little
nieces. Jessie had a feeling in her mind that there was something finer
and noble