hich the latter was, by common
understanding, to assume the direction,--giving her so many cautious
directions and charges, that a head less systematic and business-like
than Miss Ophelia's would have been utterly dizzied and confounded.

"And now," said Marie, "I believe I've told you everything; so that,
when my next sick turn comes on, you'll be able to go forward entirely,
without consulting me;--only about Eva,--she requires watching."

"She seems to be a good child, very," said Miss Ophelia; "I never saw a
better child."

"Eva's peculiar," said her mother, "very. There are things about her so
singular; she isn't like me, now, a particle;" and Marie sighed, as if
this was a truly melancholy consideration.

Miss Ophelia in her own heart said, "I hope she isn't," but had prudence
enough to keep it down.

"Eva always was disposed to be with servants; and I think that well
enough with some children. Now, I always played with father's little
negroes--it never did me any harm. But Eva somehow always seems to put
herself on an equality with every creature that comes near her. It's a
strange thing about the child. I never have been able to break her of
it. St. Clare, I believe, encourages her in it. The fact is, St. Clare
indulges every creature under this roof but his own wife."

Again Miss Ophelia sat in blank silence.

"Now, there's no way with servants," said Marie, "but to _put them
down_, and keep them down. It was always natural to me, from a child.
Eva is enough to spoil a whole house-full. What she will do when she
comes to keep house herself, I'm sure I don't know. I hold to being
_kind_ to servants--I always am; but you must make 'em _know their
place_. Eva never does; there's no getting into the child's head the
first beginning of an idea what a servant's place is! You heard her
offering to take care of me nights, to let Mammy sleep! That's just a
specimen of the way the child would be doing all the time, if she was
left to herself."

"Why," said Miss Ophelia, bluntly, "I suppose you think your servants
are human creatures, and ought to have some rest when they are tired."

"Certainly, of course. I'm very particular in letting them have
everything that comes convenient,--anything that doesn't put one at
all out of the way, you know. Mammy can make up her sleep, some time
or other; there's no difficulty about that. She's the sleepiest concern
that ever I saw; sewing, standing, or sitting, that creature