ng-house must be a paradise by comparison. It was
comical how it had all come about. It did seem as if Rose's
heedlessness, if she had been heedless in drifting without an
introduction into an acquaintance with one of Annie's doctors, was
likely to bear good fruits to Mrs. Jennings, among other people. Hester
had been looking worried lately, and had not scrupled to give as the
reason of her pre-occupation--family affairs not prosperous. The whole
of the house was not let. Old Mr. and Mrs. Foljambe had actually been
unreasonable enough to try to exchange the best rooms, which they had
chosen for themselves in the winter for shabbier, cheaper quarters
during the summer, when the husband and wife might be occasionally
absent paying visits. Old Susan, in her black cap and gold-rimmed
spectacles, was especially triumphant in seeing the scheme balked, and
confided her mingled exultation and indignation to Rose, who had helped
to balk the schemers. The confidential family servant even forgot some
of her polite mannerliness in her excitement. "Now, Miss Millar, them
Foljambes has done for themselves; serve them right for seeking to get a
catch from a friend like Missus, as is that kind to her boarders, which
you can testify, Miss; they might be her own flesh and blood. Bless you!
she'll never make a rap by keeping boarders. She never grudges them
anythink, and would sooner deny herself than that they should go without
their fancies. But there, now, that fine young gentleman you brought,"
went on Susan with the slightest respectful significance, "I'm sure
we're greatly indebted to you, Miss--speaks as if he meant to stay on
here with his sister for the present. He has taken our largest rooms off
our hands, so that we may be easy on that head, and I for one won't be
sorry if Mr. and Mrs. Foljambe ain't able to shift back into them at
their will and pleasure. The young gent, as is a gent, had no
hargle-bargling about terms. He was satisfied to pay what we asked,
because he knew that though it was not a common boarding-house, and
though it was no more than right that he and his sister should pay for
the privilege of being under the roof of a real lady like Missus, we
were not the sort to ask more than our due."

The moment Rose got quit of Susan, she said to herself complacently, "It
is very nice to have done such a service to Mrs. Jennings and Hester and
everybody, instead of having got into a scrape and being scolded, as I
almost