"Draw that easy-chair to the toilet-table," said Lady Doris; "find me a footstool, and give me from my box there a book bound in yellow paper."
Her orders were obeyed with a quickness and dexterity that amazed her, imperious as she was.
"Now," said Lady Doris, leaning back in her chair so as to enjoy the fire and bright pearly light, "you can brush my hair; but be very careful—I am very particular over it."
It was certainly a sight to be seen, that long, rippling golden hair, bright as the sunbeams, soft as silk, fine, abundant, full of natural waves. The girl looked at it admiringly as it hung over her arms in a great shower.
"It really does seem a pity to sleep in it," she thought. "If it were my hair I should like to take it off at night."
When sufficient of that ceremony had been gone through, Lady Doris turned round:
"Will you go to the housekeeper and say I should like some wine and a bunch of grapes, if she has any?"
The maid complied. The housekeeper, all anxiety to please my lady, sent a bottle of finest Burgundy, with a bunch of rich grapes that were tempting enough.
"My mistress is as beautiful as an angel," said the maid, "but she knows how to look after her own comforts."
"So do all ladies," was the housekeeper's reply; "what else have they to do? But when you have lived as long as I have, Emily, you will know how to wait upon people without making comments upon them."