rected to fill the water-can and take it up to
the top of the house. After carrying it up three flights of stairs,
she saw a door open, and a girl of nineteen or twenty, apparently
engaged in performing an elaborate toilet, looked out from it.

"How old are you?" she said, as she took the water from Nelly.

"I'll soon be fourteen, miss."

"Well, you don't look it. You'll have to look sharp here if you want
to suit us. Now, take these boots down to brush."

She spoke in a quick, sharp way, a good deal like her mother's; and
her face, though tolerably comely, was sharp too. Miss Williams meant
to "get on" in the world if she could, and her face and manner showed
it.

Nelly found various things to do before she got back to her unfinished
dinner, and then Mrs. Williams hurried her through, that she might get
the kitchen made "tidy." In the meantime Miss Williams departed, in
all the glories of a fashionable toilet, for her afternoon promenade,
her mother regarding her with much pride and complacency. It seemed
the one object of her hard-working, careworn life that her daughter
should look "like a lady," and a large proportion of her earnings and
savings went to effect this object.

Nelly's services were at once called into requisition to assist in the
preparation of the dinner for the boarders--four gentlemen--who, her
mistress informed her, were "very particular," and liked everything
nice. She received a confusing multiplicity of directions as to
waiting at table, for Mrs. Williams rather prided herself on the
"stylishness" of her establishment. She got through her task tolerably
well, though somewhat bewildered between Mrs. Williams' quick, sharp
reminders and the "chaffing" of one or two of the gentlemen, who
thought it "good fun" to puzzle the "new hand" with ironical remarks,
some of them being aimed at their landlady through her servant.

After the waiting at dinner, followed the preparation of tea for Mrs.
Williams and her daughter, who had come in, and was in the midst of
one of the evening performances on the piano, which were the dread of
the boarders; and then there were all the dishes used at dinner to
wash and put away. It was pretty late by the time all this had been
done, and Nelly was feeling very sleepy, and wondering how soon she
might go to bed, when her mistress came down with half-a-dozen pairs
of boots, to be cleaned either that evening or next morning. Now the
next day was Sunday, and at the