nk you would.
There is a seat behind which she can occupy."

"Mamma thought it best. I hope it is not wrong, Mrs. Lovel."

"I ought to have introduced myself. I am Miss Lovel, and the rector
of Yoxham is my brother. It does not signify about the maid in the
least. We can do very well with her. I suppose she has been with you
a long time."

"No, indeed;--she only came the day before yesterday." And so Miss
Lovel learned the whole story of the lady's-maid.

Lady Anna said very little, but Miss Lovel explained a good many
things during the journey. The young lord was not at Yoxham. He was
with a friend in Scotland, but would be home about the 20th. The two
boys were at home for the holidays, but would go back to school in a
fortnight. Minnie Lovel, the daughter, had a governess. The rectory,
for a parsonage, was a tolerably large house, and convenient. It had
been Lord Lovel's early home, but at present he was not much there.
"He thinks it right to go to Lovel Grange during a part of the
autumn. I suppose you have seen Lovel Grange."

"Never."

"Oh, indeed. But you lived near it;--did you not?"

"No, not near;--about fifteen miles, I think. I was born there, but
have never been there since I was a baby."

"Oh!--you were born there. Of course you know that it is Lord Lovel's
seat now. I do not know that he likes it, though the scenery is
magnificent. But a landlord has to live, at least for some period of
the year, upon his property. You saw my nephew."

"Yes; he came to us once."

"I hope you liked him. We think him very nice. But then he is almost
the same as a son here. Do you care about visiting the poor?"

"I have never tried," said Lady Anna.

"Oh dear!"

"We have been so poor ourselves;--we were just one of them." Then
Miss Lovel perceived that she had made a mistake. But she was
generous enough to recognize the unaffected simplicity of the girl,
and almost began to think well of her.

"I hope you will come round the parish with us. We shall be very
glad. Yoxham is a large parish, with scattered hamlets, and there is
plenty to do. The manufactories are creeping up to us, and we have
already a large mill at Yoxham Lock. My brother has to keep two
curates now. Here we are, my dear, and I hope we shall be able to
make you happy."

Mrs. Lovel did not like the maid, and Mr. Lovel did not like it at
all. "And yet we heard when we were up in town that they literally
had not anything to live on," said th