[CHAPTER IX]
ONLY A SERVANT
FOR the first week or so after her arrival at Barford Violet was most careful in keeping her bedroom in good order, for she was delighted with the pretty little room, which was a picture of daintiness and freshness; but it was not long before she began to grow careless about it, and there came a day when, on her return from school in the afternoon, Mrs. Reed followed her upstairs and told her in a tone, which, though kind, betrayed displeasure, that she really must learn to be more tidy and not leave her bedroom in such a litter again.
"I—I am very sorry," stammered Violet, crimsoning with mortification, as she cast one hurried look around and saw that Mrs. Reed had not spoken without reason, "I—I was in a hurry, and I had no time to put things straight before I left for school."
"I don't think that is an adequate excuse, my dear," Mrs. Reed said gravely, "for it would have taken you no longer to have put that wet towel on the towel-horse than to have flung it on the bed. Then look at your boots and shoes strewn about the floor as though you had no cupboard to keep them in, and your desk left open, and your mother's letter—I see it is hers by the writing on the envelope—on the dressing-table. I have no reason to think that there is anyone in the house who is sufficiently prying and dishonourable to read another person's letters, but it is always unwise to leave correspondence about."
"Yes, I know it is," Violet admitted, taking her mother's letter from the dressing-table and slipping it into her pocket, whilst she remembered there was a great deal in it she would not care for a servant to see. She then proceeded to close and lock her desk; after which she collected her boots and shoes and put them in the cupboard; hung up in its proper place in the wardrobe a skirt which she had thrown over the back of a chair; took the damp towel off the bed; and otherwise tidied the room.
"That's better," Mrs. Reed said approvingly, "you must be more careful in future. I cannot endure disorder, and there is really no excuse for it in this case, for there is a place for everything."
"I won't leave my room so untidy again," promised Violet, "but I—I really was in a great hurry, and I didn't think what I was doing. I just did as I should have done at home and left my things all higgledy-piggledy."
Mrs. Reed could not refrain from smiling at this frank admission.
"It is a very great pity to get into the habit of doing that, Violet," she said; "and really it is quite as easy to be tidy as untidy. You shared a bedroom with your elder sister, at home, did you not?"