On her pressing for a reason the maid had said, with many blushes, that she was intending to be married directly her time was up.
"But can you not wait till mother comes home?" pleaded Agnes. "I trust she will be home in March; that would be only another month. Could you not arrange it so?"
But the girl persisted that she could not alter; and so Agnes had had reluctantly to make up her mind to a fresh responsibility, and determined to consult her Aunt Phyllis on the subject.
And while her mind was perturbed with the annoyance of having to install another servant in her mother's absence, came another small trouble.
Alice sauntered into the room with a book in her hand, and sat down on the hearthrug close to the fire.
"Alice dear," said Agnes looking up, "have you cleaned the bird's cage? It is the day for fresh sand."
"I did it yesterday," answered Alice absently, bending over her book.
"I think not," answered Agnes, "in fact I am sure of it; because, don't you remember, we all went out with Aunt Phyllis the moment after breakfast?"
"Then it was the day before."
"So it may have been; but mother likes new sand put every other day, without fail."