s the Yankee
domestics say.'

Audrey spoke with such good-natured decision, with such assurance of
being obeyed, that Kester did not even venture on a grumbling
remonstrance--the poor fellow was too much accustomed to be set on one
side, and to be told that he was no use. But Audrey had no intention of
leaving him in idleness.

'By and by, when the room is a little clearer, you can be of the
greatest help to us; for you can sit at the table and dust the books in
readiness for us to arrange.' And Kester's face brightened up at that.

Audrey was quite in her element. As she often told her mother, she was
robust enough for a housemaid. The well-ordered establishment at
Woodcote, with its staff of trained domestics and its excellent matron,
afforded little scope for her youthful activities. Mrs. Ross was her own
housekeeper, and though she had contentedly relinquished her duties to
Geraldine for the last few years, she had not yet offered to transfer
them to Audrey.

Audrey pretended to be a little hurt at this arrangement, but in reality
she was secretly relieved. Her tastes were not sufficiently domestic.
She liked better to supplement her mother's duties than to take the
entire lead. In her way she was extremely useful. She wrote a great many
of the business letters, undertook all the London shopping, and assisted
Mrs. Ross in entertaining her numerous visitors, many of whom were the
boys' mothers; and though Mrs. Ross still regretted the loss of her
elder daughter, and complained that no one could replace Geraldine, she
was fully sensible of Audrey's efficiency and good-humoured and ready
help.

'Audrey is as good as gold, and does all I want her to do,' she said to
Geraldine, when the latter had questioned her very closely on the
subject.

It was no trouble to Audrey to dash off half a dozen letters before
post-time, or to drive into Sittingbourne to meet a batch of boys'
relatives. She was naturally active, and hated an idle moment; but no
work suited her so well as this Herculean task of evoking order out of
the Blake chaos. Molly was so charmed with her energy, so fired by her
example, that she worked like a dozen Mollies. The books were soon
unpacked and on the table; then Biddy was called in to clear away the
straw and hampers, and to have a grand sweep. Nothing more could be done
until this had been carried out, so they left Biddy to revel in dust and
tea-leaves, while they turned out another hamper or tw