“And now what have my servants done?” she cried, looking from one young face to another, but too engrossed to notice the various expressions of mirth or bewilderment on each.
As no one was in a position to reply, she continued:
“What have they done? They have left me! Departed, one and all, with no word of warning, no cause for offense.”
“Why did they go?” inquired Betty, who liked to know reasons for things.
“Alas! James, my butler, obtained a fine position in a large hotel in the city, and, viper that he is, he must needs tell all the others of it, and one and all, from the head cook down to the footman, ungratefully left my kind service and followed James to the unknown, untried hardships of a city hotel.”
“But you can get a new set of servants,” said Aunt Molly, soothingly.
“Of course I can,” cried Mrs. Lennox, bristling up as if her dignity had been menaced. “Of course I can! Hosts of the best servants in the country are only awaiting an opportunity to come to my service. But it takes time to procure and install a new lot, and here is the culmination of my dismay. But now I received a telegram bidding me expect Lady Pendered and her daughter to-morrow, to remain with me overnight. Ah, my dear friend, you do not know Lady Pendered, but she represents the very flower of the British aristocracy. Her fair daughter Lucy is a sweet gem of purest ray serene, and they have never known what it was to have less than twenty servants at their finger-ends. And my James was such a paragon of a butler! Alas, alas! how sharper than a servant’s tooth—no, a thankless tooth—ah, well, the quotation has slipped my memory for the moment, but I will recall it anon.”
“When are your English friends coming?” asked Aunt Molly.
“To-morrow afternoon,” replied Mrs. Lennox; “and oh, how it would have pleased me were I but able to offer them such hospitality as ’tis in my heart to give! They can remain with me but twenty-four hours, and then they will speed away to publish broadcast the news that Miranda Lennox has no establishment save one old colored woman and a good-for-nothing boy. For those, alas! are all I can find in this howling wilderness of a sea-shore town.”
“Girls,” was all Aunt Molly said, but she looked volumes of meaning out of her kind, clever eyes.