Her locks of jetty hair;
And brought them into graceful curl
About her forehead fair."
Alice remained closeted in her little room, eating but a morsel of the dinner brought her by Thisbe, till night-fall, when the woman again appeared, and said,
"Mistress says, if Miss Alice has made herself presentable, she can attend her in the family sitting-room in half an hour."
Alice bowed to this message, and said she would be pleased to meet her aunt and cousins at the time specified. The woman paused a moment, and then asked timidly,
"Would not Miss Alice like a waitin'-maid sent to 'sist her in dressin'?"
"No, thank you," returned Alice, smiling. "I am accustomed to wait on myself."
The woman opened wide her shiny eyes, and exclaiming, "Massy! who ever heard the like?" retired with a courtesy.
Alice laughed quite heartily after she was gone. "The idea of a black girl to help me put on a plain muslin frock, and twist my ringlets into a little smoother curl!" said she. "I could array myself to meet a queen in ten minutes."