d solely for our benefit, she assumed a vivacity and
spriteliness that ill suited her, that having regard to her age and
tendency towards rheumatism must have cost her no small effort. From
these experiences there remains to me the perhaps immoral opinion that
Virtue, in common with all other things, is at her best when unassuming.

Occasionally the old Adam--or should one say Eve--would assert itself in
my aunt, and then, still thoughtful for others, she would descend into
the kitchen and be disagreeable to Amy, our new servitor, who never
minded it. Amy was a philosopher who reconciled herself to all things
by the reflection that there were only twenty-four hours in a day.
It sounds a dismal theory, but from it Amy succeeded in extracting
perpetual cheerfulness. My mother would apologise to her for my aunt's
interference.

"Lord bless you, mum, it don't matter. If I wasn't listening to her
something else worse might be happening. Everything's all the same when
it's over."

Amy had come to us merely as a stop gap, explaining to my mother that
she was about to be married and desired only a temporary engagement to
bridge over the few weeks between then and the ceremony.

"It's rather unsatisfactory," had said my mother. "I dislike changes."

"I can quite understand it, mum," had replied Amy; "I dislike 'em
myself. Only I heard you were in a hurry, and I thought maybe that while
you were on the lookout for somebody permanent--"

So on that understanding she came. A month later my mother asked her
when she thought the marriage would actually take place.

"Don't think I'm wishing you to go," explained my mother, "indeed I'd
like you to stop. I only want to know in time to make my arrangements."

"Oh, some time in the spring, I expect," was Amy's answer.

"Oh!" said my mother, "I understood it was coming off almost
immediately."

Amy appeared shocked.

"I must know a little bit more about him before I go as far as that,"
she said.

"But I don't understand," said my mother; "you told me when you came to
me that you were going to be married in a few weeks."

"Oh, that one!" Her tone suggested that an unfair strain was being put
upon her memory. "I didn't feel I wanted him as much as I thought I did
when it came to the point."

"You had meantime met the other one?" suggested my mother, with a smile.

"Well, we can't help our feelings, can we, mum?" admitted Amy, frankly,
"and what I always say is"--she spoke a