wered him; but somehow it makes me feel
weaker than water. I suppose, though, I shall get accustomed to it.'

CHAPTER IV.

GETTING ACCUSTOMED TO IT.

In the absence of Mrs. Crawford, who for a week or more had been
domesticated in the cottage in the lane, as the house was designated
which Arthur had given her, there was no one to receive the strangers
except the cook and the house-maid, and as Mrs. Tracy entered the hall
the two came forward, bristling with criticism, and ready to resent
anything like interference in the new-comers.

The servants at the park had not been pleased with the change of
administration. That Mr. Arthur was a gentleman whom it was an honor to
serve, they all conceded; but with regard to the new master and
mistress, they had grave doubts. Although none of them had been at the
park on the occasion of Mrs. Tracy's first visit there, many rumors
concerning her had reached them, and she would scarcely have recognized
herself could she have heard the remarks of which she was the subject.
That she had worked in a factory--which was true--was her least offence,
for it was whispered that once, when the winter was unusually severe,
and work scarce, she had gone to a soup-house, and even asked and
procured coal from the poor-master for herself and her mother.

This was not true, and would have argued nothing against her as a woman
if it had been, but the cook and the house-maid believed it, and passed
sundry jokes together while preparing to meet 'the pauper,' as they
designated her.

In this state of things their welcome could not be very cordial, but
Mrs. Tracy was too tired and too much excited, to observe their demeanor
particularly. They were civil, and the house was in perfect order, and
so much larger and handsomer than she had thought it to be, that she
felt bewildered and embarrassed, and said 'Yes 'em,' and 'No, ma'am,' to
Martha, the cook, and told Sarah, who was waiting at dinner, that she
'might as well sit down in a chair as to stand all the time; she
presumed she was tired with so many extra steps to take.'

But Sarah knew her business, and persisted in standing, and inflicting
upon the poor woman as much ceremony as possible, and then, in the
kitchen, she repeated to the cook and the coachman, with sundry
embellishments of her own, the particulars of the dinner, amid peals of
laughter at the expense of the would-be lady, who had said 'she could
just as soon have her salad w