a minute inside the waiting-room and rapidly repeating the
tale.

"Yes, if it's true," said Sophia. But Mrs. Rexford did not hear, as she
had already turned her head out of the door again, and was commending
Eliza White for the course she had taken.

The grey-eyed Winifred, however, still turned inside to combat
reproachfully Sophia's suspicions. "You would not doubt her word,
Sophia, if you saw how cold and tired she looked."

Mrs. Rexford seemed to argue concerning the stranger's truthfulness in
very much the same way, for she was saying:--

"And now, Eliza, will you be my servant? If you will come with me to
Chellaston I will pay your fare, and I will take care of you until you
hear from your uncle."

"I do not want to be a servant." The reply was stolidly given.

"What! do you wish to be idle?"

"I will work in your house, if you like; but I can pay my own fare in
the cars, and I won't be a servant."

There was so much sullen determination in her manner that Mrs. Rexford
did not attempt to argue the point.

"Take her, mamma," whispered Winifred. "How ill she seems! And she must
be awfully lonely in this great country all alone."

Mrs. Rexford, having turned into the room, was rapidly commenting to
Sophia. "Says she will come, but won't be called a servant, and can pay
her own fare. Very peculiar--but we read, you know, in that New England
book, that that was just the independent way they felt about it. They
can only induce _slaves_ to be servants _there_, I believe." She gave
this cursory view of the condition of affairs in the neighbouring States
in an abstracted voice, and summed up her remarks by speaking out her
decision in a more lively tone. "Well, we must have some one to help
with the work. This girl looks strong, and her spirit in the matter
signifies less." Then, turning to the girl without the door: "I think
you will suit me, Eliza. You can stay with us, at any rate, till you
hear from your uncle. You look strong and clean, and I'm _sure_ you'll
do your best to please me"--this with warning emphasis. "Come in now to
the warmth beside us. We can make room in here."

The place was so small and the family so large that the last assurance
was not wholly unnecessary. Mrs. Rexford brought Eliza in and set her
near the stove. The girls and children gathered round her somewhat
curiously, but she sat erect without seeming to notice them much, an
expression of impassive, almost hardened, trouble on he