"Because we were a couple of born fools, that's why!" answered the maid.
"Born fools! and I the biggest, the oldest, the most outrageous fool of
all! Wasn't we independent? Couldn't you have took scholars, and I
washing by the dozen? Hadn't we the sweetest little garden in that whole
town? such cabbages, such onions, and lettuce headed like cabbage, and
tender as--as flowers! Whenever I get sick over these French dishes, I
think of that garden, and the cow, and the shoat that knew me when I
came to the pen with corn in my apron, and gave a little grunt, as if
I'd been his sister. Then my heart turns back to the old home, like a
sunflower, and I say to myself, You perposterous old maid, you! what did
you let that poor young thing come from under that honest roof for? You
was old enough to know better, if she wasn't; but you had an idea of
seeing the world, of dressing up and being a lady's maid, of hearing
whole crowds of young men stamp and clap and whistle over that innocent
young cretur. You didn't think that she might faint dead away, and--and
be brought home heart-broken. Home, indeed! as if this box of gilding
could be a home to any American woman! It's perposterous!"

Here Eliza broke off with a half-uttered word on her lips, for her
speech had brought the old home back so vividly to the heart-sick girl
that she was sobbing upon her pillow like a child.

A little bustle down stairs, a knock at the door, and, as Eliza ran
forward, Olympia pushed it open and came in.

She saw Caroline prostrate on the bed, with that delicate robe wrapped
around and crushed under her, and the lace shawl falling from the pillow
to the carpet, like a trail of frost.

The sight urged her into one of those quick passions that sometimes
threw her whole household into consternation.

"Heavens! what extravagance!" she cried. "Does the creature know that
lace like that is worth its weight in diamonds? A silk robe, too, which
could not be purchased out of Paris, tumbled up in a wad, and one mass
of wrinkles! I see! I see! the revenues of a duke would not meet such
extravagance! Get up! Get up, I say! and if you must make a goose of
yourself, do it at less cost!"

"Hush, madam! she's sick! She's broken-hearted!" retorted Eliza, turning
fiercely red and planting herself before the shrinking girl.

"Well, she must break her heart in something less costly than a French
dress worth thirty pounds, and point lace that cannot be got at any
p