hither and thither upon her neck, as she seized
the opportunity of turning to her own use a sentence she had just read
in the "Fireside Herald" which had taken her fancy--spoken by Lady
Blanche Rivington Delaware to a detested lover disinclined to be
dismissed.

"Would you please tell me where to find the second house-maid," said
Mary. "Mrs. Perkin has sent me to her room."

"Why don't Mrs. Perkin show you the way, then?" returned the woman.
"There ain't nobody else in the house as I knows on fit to send to the
top o' them stairs with you. A nice way Jemim' 'ill be in when _she_
comes 'ome, to find a stranger in her room!"

The same instant, however, the woman bethought herself that, if what
she had said in her haste were reported, it would be as much as her
place was worth; and at once thereupon she assumed a more complaisant
tone. Casting a look at her saucepans, as if to warn them concerning
their behavior in her absence, she turned again to Mary, saying:

"I believe I better show you the way myself. It's easier to take you
than find a girl to do it. Them hussies is never where they oughto be!
_You_ follow _me_."

She led the way along two passages, and up a back staircase of
stone--up and up, till Mary, unused to such heights, began to be aware
of knees. Plainly at last in the regions of the roof, she thought her
hill Difficulty surmounted, but the cook turned a sharp corner, and
Mary following found herself once more at the foot of a stair--very
narrow and steep, leading up to one of those old-fashioned roof-turrets
which had begun to appear in the new houses of that part of London.

"Are you taking me to the clouds, cook?" she said, willing to be
cheerful, and to acknowledge her obligation for laborious guidance.

"Not yet a bit, I hope," answered the cook; "we'll get there soon
enough, anyhow--excep' you belong to them peculiars as wants to be
saints afore their time. If that's your sort, don't you come here; for
a wickeder 'ouse, or an 'ouse as you got to work harder in o' Sundays,
no one won't easily find in this here west end."

With these words she panted up the last few steps, immediately at the
top of which was the room sought. It was a very small one, scarcely
more than holding the two beds. Having lighted the gas, the cook left
her; and Mary, noting that one of the beds was not made up, was glad to
throw herself upon it. Covering herself with her cloak, her
traveling-rug, and the woolen counterp