isp and cheerful as a
trained nurse might have been, she was disappointed. Justine was simply
a nice, honest-looking American country girl, in a cheap, neat, brown
suit and a dreadful hat. She smiled appreciatively when Alexandra
showed her her attractive little room, unlocked what Sandy saw to be a
very orderly trunk, changed her hot suit at once for the gray gingham
uniform, and went to Mrs. Salisbury's room with great composure, for
instructions. In passing, Alexandra--feeling the situation to be a
little odd, yet bravely, showed her the back stairway and the bathroom,
and murmured something about books being in the little room off the
drawing-room downstairs. Justine smiled brightly.

"Oh, I brought several books with me," she said, "and I subscribe to
two weekly magazines and one monthly. So usually I have enough to read."

"How do you do? You look very cool and comfortable, Justine. Now,
you'll have to find your own way about downstairs. You'll see the
coffee next to the bread box, and the brooms are in the laundry closet.
Just do the best you can. Mr. Salisbury likes dry toast in the
morning--eggs in some way. We get eggs from the milkman; they seem
fresher. But you have to tell him the day before. And I understood that
you'll do most of the washing? Yes. My old Nancy was here day before
yesterday, so there's not much this week." It was in some such
disconnected strain as this that Mrs. Salisbury welcomed and initiated
the new maid.

Justine bowed reassuringly.

"I'll find everything, Madam. And do you wish me to manage and to
market for awhile until you are about again?"

The invalid sent a pleading glance to Sandy.

"Oh, I think my daughter will do that," she said.

"Oh, now, why, Mother?" Sandy asked, in affectionate impatience. "I
don't begin to know as much about it as Justine probably does. Why not
let her?"

"If Madam will simply tell me what sum she usually spends on the
table," said Justine, "I will take the matter in hand."

Mrs. Salisbury hesitated. This was the very stronghold of her
authority. It seemed terrible to her, indelicate, to admit a stranger.

"Well, it varies a little," she said restlessly. "I am not accustomed
to spending a set sum." She addressed her daughter. "You see, I've been
paying Nancy every week, dear," said she, "and the other laundry. And
little things come up--"

"What sum would be customary, in a family this size?" Alexandra asked
briskly of the graduate servant