ps. He pointed
out that as all the soldiers had fallen by gunshot wounds, none of the
prisoners at the bar had any hand in their death. The counsel for the
crown did not press for capital sentences. Two of the men, who had
before suffered terms of imprisonment for being concerned in running
illicit stills, were sentenced to transportation. The others escaped
with terms of imprisonment.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE NEW HOUSEMAID.

"What do you think of the new housemaid, Charlotte?"

"As she has only been here twenty-four hours," Miss Penfold replied,
"I don't think I can say anything about it, Eleanor. All servants
behave decently for the first week or two, then their faults begin to
come out. However, she seems quiet in her way of going about, and that
is something. My room was carefully dusted this morning. These are the
only two points on which I can at present say anything."

"I met her in the passage this morning," Eleanor Penfold said, "and it
seemed to me that her face reminded me of some one. Did that strike
you?"

"Not at all," the elder sister replied decidedly. "I am not given to
fancies about such things. I saw no likeness to any one, and if I had
done so I should not have given it a second thought. The one point
with us is whether the woman is clean, quiet, steady, and thoroughly
up to her work. Her reference said she was all these things, and I
hope she will prove so. She is older than I like servants to be, that
is, when they first come to us. A young girl is teachable, but when a
servant has once got into certain ways there is never any altering
them. However, if she knows her work it does not matter; and there's
one comfort, at her age she is less likely to be coming to us one day
or other soon and saying that she wants to leave us to get married."

The new servant, Anna, as she was called in the house soon settled
down to her duty. Miss Penfold allowed that she knew her work and did
it carefully. The servants did not quite understand the newcomer. She
was pleasant and friendly, but somehow "she was not," as one of them
said, "of their sort." This they put down partly to the fact that she
had been in service in London, and was not accustomed to country ways.
However, she was evidently obliging and quiet, and smoothed away any
slight feeling of hostility with which the under housemaid was at
first disposed to feel against her for coming in as a stranger over
her head, by saying that as she had no