nd have you been walking about all this time in the dark by yourself?
How horrid; nursie will be vexed!' cried Vava.

'I enjoyed myself very much, thank you,' said Eva, escaping upstairs to
take off her hat and coat.

She had not said where she had been; and though Amy, who knew her, did
not believe she had walked for more than two hours after their long
walk, and guessed what she had done, no one asked any questions. For
that Eva was thankful, and in spite of a bad conscience, which should
have pricked her, she enjoyed the pie which Mrs. Morrison had made the
day before and left in the oven to heat up along with baked potatoes.

'Sunday's dinner and supper always cook themselves,' she explained.

As a kind of amends for her un-Sunday-like day, Eva went into the
kitchen and asked Mrs. Morrison if she might help her to wash-up.

It was on the tip of the good woman's tongue to refuse, and tell her
that she must be too tired to stand about any more; but a glance at
Eva's face showed that the girl was not tired, and some intuition told
her that she had better accept the offer and try and make friends with
this girl, who, after all, was only sixteen, and had no one to keep her
in order. So she said, 'Thank you kindly, Miss Barnes, my dear; if you
take this mop you will not put your hands in the water so much, and as I
never use soda they will not get spoilt, and here 's a nice apron for
you.'

Eva accordingly, enveloped in a large apron, stood at the tub and
conversed with the Scotchwoman, who watched her quick movements with
interest and admiration, for she was very graceful, and she did her work
in a very business-like manner, which pleased the methodical
housekeeper.

'There's a right way and a wrong way of doing everything, but you've got
the right way of washing-up, and it makes a deal of difference, though
folk won't believe it. I can't bear to see a young girl doing a few
things at a time, and then going to find some more, and putting in the
greasy things first, and the glasses and silver last,' she observed.

'My mother taught me that; once a week we went into the kitchen to learn
how to do cooking and kitchen-work,' said Eva, and she gave a sigh.

'She must have been a wise woman and a good mother. Have you lost her
long, my poor bairn?' inquired the housekeeper.

'A year and a half, but it feels like ten,' said Eva; and then she began
to tell Mrs. Morrison about her past life at the pretty home in
Cambri