dining-room, so that the servants could not complain of
extra trouble, as they would only have to lay another place at the
table; but Mrs. Mobberly, who came in very opportunely in the midst of
her deliberations, dissuaded her from it.

"It is all very well now," she said, "while your aunt is so very ill
that you must of necessity be in her room whenever the nurse is away
having her meals, but we hope she will soon be so much better that there
will be no need for that, and you will sometimes find it awkward then to
keep nurse waiting till you have finished. No, you had much better
insist at once upon her meals being comfortably prepared for her
upstairs."

"But where can she have them? There is not even the tiniest sitting-room
upstairs, only the small bedroom which nurse uses for herself, and the
large one where I sleep."

"Then I think, if I were you, as yours is such a large, airy room, I
would have one of these small tables moved into it, and let nurse have
all her meals there. You will find she will prefer it to coming
downstairs, as it is near enough to the sick room to hear every sound,
and if you make a rule that your bedroom shall be put straight directly
you leave it in the morning, and the windows thrown wide open, it will
be quite fresh by the time she wants it."

Ella thanked Mrs. Mobberly warmly for her advice, which she promised to
follow, and as she walked down the garden with her to the gate, she told
her of her mother's parting advice, that when it was necessary to speak
to the servants, she should first of all make quite sure she was in the
right herself, and then assert her authority decisively, so that there
might be no doubt about her intention of being obeyed.

In spite of her brave words, however, Ella felt her courage ebbing away
as Mrs. Mobberly disappeared in the distance, and she had to summon up
all her resolution and give her orders at once, before it all
evaporated.

The servants listened to what she had to say in perfect silence, and
after waiting in vain for a reply, she had to leave them, feeling very
much discomfited, but no sooner was she safely within the shelter of the
breakfast-room than their tongues were loosed, and she heard their loud,
rude voices angrily discussing what she had said, and declaring they
would not put up with such interference, and adding, to Ella's dismay,
in almost the very words she herself had used before leaving home, that
"she was a fine one to come