, "Now
you look just like your dear mother when I laid her out!"

... Yes, madam, it was all left to me. Oh, she did look sweet. I did her
hair, soft-like, round her forehead, all in dainty curls, and just to
one side of her neck I put a bunch of most beautiful purple pansies.
Those pansies made a picture of her, madam! I shall never forget them.
I thought to-night, when I looked at my lady, "Now, if only the pansies
was there no one could tell the difference."

... Only the last year, madam. Only after she'd got a
little--well--feeble as you might say. Of course, she was never
dangerous; she was the sweetest old lady. But how it took her was--she
thought she'd lost something. She couldn't keep still, she couldn't
settle. All day long she'd be up and down, up and down; you'd meet her
everywhere,--on the stairs, in the porch, making for the kitchen. And
she'd look up at you, and she'd say--just like a child, "I've lost it,
I've lost it." "Come along," I'd say, "come along, and I'll lay out your
patience for you." But she'd catch me by the hand--I was a favourite of
hers--and whisper, "Find it for me, Ellen. Find it for me." Sad, wasn't
it?

... No, she never recovered, madam. She had a stroke at the end. Last
words she ever said was--very slow, "Look in--the--Look--in--" And then
she was gone.

... No, madam, I can't say I noticed it. Perhaps some girls. But you
see, it's like this, I've got nobody but my lady. My mother died of
consumption when I was four, and I lived with my grandfather, who kept
a hair-dresser's shop. I used to spend all my time in the shop under a
table dressing my doll's hair--copying the assistants, I suppose. They
were ever so kind to me. Used to make me little wigs, all colours, the
latest fashions and all. And there I'd sit all day, quiet as quiet--the
customers never knew. Only now and again I'd take my peep from under the
table-cloth.

... But one day I managed to get a pair of scissors and--would you
believe it, madam? I cut off all my hair; snipped it off all in bits,
like the little monkey I was. Grandfather was furious! He caught hold of
the tongs--I shall never forget it--grabbed me by the hand and shut my
fingers in them. "That'll teach you!" he said. It was a fearful burn.
I've got the mark of it to-day.

... Well, you see, madam, he'd taken such pride in my hair. He used to
sit me up on the counter, before the customers came, and do it something
beautiful--big, soft curls and w