her pride of place. An involuntary twinkle about the corners of
Mary's mouth made her hasten to answer her question.

"I am sorry," she said, "that I can give you no prospect of an
interview with Mrs. Redmain before three o'clock. She will very likely
not be out of her room before one.--I suppose you saw her at
Durnmelling?"

"Yes, ma'am," answered Mary, "--and at Testbridge."

It kept growing on the housekeeper that she had made a mistake--though
to what extent she sought in vain to determine.

"You will find it rather wearisome waiting," she said next; "--would
you not like to help me with my work?"

Already she had the sunflowers under her creative hands.

"I should be very glad--if I can do it well enough to please you,
ma'am," answered Mary. "But," she added, "would you kindly see that
Mrs. Redmain is told, as soon as she wakes, that I am here?"

"Oblige me by ringing the bell," said Mrs. Perkin.--"Send Mrs. Folter
here."'

A rather cross-looking, red-faced, thin woman appeared, whom she
requested to let her mistress know, as soon as was proper, that there
was a young person in the house who said she had come from Testbridge
by appointment to see her.

"Yes, ma'am," said Folter, with a supercilious yet familiar nod to
Mary; "I'll take care she knows."

Mary passed what would have been a dreary morning to one dependent on
her company. It was quite three o'clock when she was at length summoned
to Mrs. Redmain's boudoir. Folter, who was her guide thither, lingered,
in the soft closing of the door, long enough to learn that her mistress
received the young person with a kiss--almost as much to Mary's
surprise as Folter's annoyance, which annoyance partly to relieve,
partly to pass on to Mrs. Perkin, whose reception of Mary she had
learned, Folter hastened to report the fact, and succeeded thereby in
occasioning no small uneasiness in the bosom of the housekeeper, who
was almost as much afraid of her mistress as the other servants were of
herself. Some time she spent in expectant trepidation, but gradually,
as nothing came of it, calmed her fears, and concluded that her
behavior to Mary had been quite correct, seeing the girl had made it no
ground of complaint.

But, although Hesper, being at the moment in tolerable spirits, in
reaction from her depression of the day before, received Mary with a
kiss, she did not ask her a question about her journey, or as to how
she had spent the night. She was there, and