at sleepy little hamlet in the way
of entertainment, he did not pretend to have discovered.

Five days later the party arrived, his aunt, her niece Mrs. Harold, her
maid Celestine.

As he greeted Mrs. Rutherford, Winthrop remarked to himself, as he had
remarked many times before, that his aunt was a fine-looking woman. Mrs.
Rutherford was sixty years of age, tall, erect, with a well-cut profile,
and beautiful gray hair, which lay in soft waves, like a silvery cloud,
above her fine dark eyes. The state of her health had evidently not
interfered with the arrangement of this aureola, neither had it relaxed
in any degree the grave perfection of her attire; her bonnet was a
model of elegance and simplicity, her boot, as she stepped from the
carriage, was seen to be another model of elegance and good sense. Mrs.
Rutherford loved elegance. But Mrs. Rutherford loved indolence as well,
and indolence never constructed or kept in order an appearance such as
hers; the person (of very different aspect) who followed her, laden with
baskets, cushions, and shawls, was the real architect of this fine
structure, from the soft waves of hair to the well-shaped boot; this
person was Celestine, the maid.

Celestine's real name was Minerva Poindexter. Her mistress, not liking
the classic appellation, had changed it to Celestine, the Poindexter
being dropped entirely. Mrs. Rutherford was accustomed to say that this
was her one deliberate affectation--she affected to believe that
Celestine was French; the maid, a tall, lean, yellow-skinned woman,
reticent and unsmiling, might have been French or Scotch, Portuguese or
Brazilian, as far as appearance went, tall, lean women of unmarried
aspect being a product scattered in regular, if limited, quantities over
the face of the entire civilized globe. As she seldom opened her lips,
her nationality could not be determined by an inquiring public from her
speech. There were those, however, who maintained that Celestine knew
all languages, that there was a dark omniscience about her. In reality
she was a Vermont woman, who had begun life as a country dress-maker--a
country dress-maker with great natural talent but no opportunities. The
opportunities had come later, they came when she was discovered by Mrs.
Peter Rutherford. This tall Vermont genius had now filled for many years
a position which was very congenial to her, though it would have been
considered by most persons a position full of difficultie