y
believe she could be my mistress. She spoke to me most gently, hoped I
should prove a good girl; and, without entering into the nature of my
duties, merely said that the cook and the nurse would put me in the right
way. Dear lady! she was like many other ladies who marry as soon as they
leave school; and who, without knowing any thing at all about the
management of a house, rush into housekeeping.

I wish I could have had all my instructions from my mistress. As it was, I
had three distinct mistresses; my real one knowing less about what I did,
than either of the others. I was often very much tempted to peep into the
beautiful books which were lying about the drawing-room I had the care of.
As I dusted them with my brush, once or twice I could not resist; and, one
morning I opened the prettiest, in which there were such beautiful
engravings, that I turned them all over till I came to the end. One
engraving seemed so very interesting that I could not resist reading a
little of the story which told about it. I was standing with the book in
one hand, the dusting brush in the other, forgetting every thing else,
when I was startled by the sound of my own name. I turned round and saw my
mistress. "Fanny!" repeated my mistress, "this is very wrong; I do not
allow this." I could not speak, but I felt myself turn very red; and I put
the book hastily on the table. I did not try to make any excuse for what I
had done. I was touched by the gentleness with which my mistress had
reproved me.

Several weeks passed. I was very miserable, but I struggled hard to bear
all as well as I could. I was sure that both the nurse and the cook gave
me a great many things to do that they ought to have done themselves; so
that I had very little rest, and was very tired when night came. I was
certain that I was a restraint on what they had to say to each other: they
were by no means sure of me; and, when I entered the kitchen unexpectedly,
I knew by their altered tone and manners that they spoke of something
different to what they had been speaking about before. I saw many signs
pass between them, which they did not think I saw. Sometimes I knew they
were trying to see how far they might trust me, and I had a strong wish
that they would find out they _never_ would be able to trust me.

One day I was cleaning the children's shoes in a little out-house near the
kitchen, when my mistress came down to give orders for dinner. The cook
did not know I