"I am very well, thank you," replied the lady.
"After such a terrible trial! But you always possessed a heroic spirit."
"We will not speak of that, Mrs. Stillwater, if you please," was the grave reply.
Mr. Rockharrt looked around, as well as he could while old Jason was drawing off his spring overcoat, and said:
"Take Mrs. Stillwater to her room, Cora. Don't keep her standing here."
"I have rung for a servant, who will attend to Mrs. Stillwater's needs," replied the lady, quietly.
The Iron King turned and stared at his granddaughter angrily, but said nothing.
The housemaid came up at this moment.
"Martha, show Mrs. Stillwater to the chamber prepared for her, and wait her orders there."
The negro woman wiped her clean hand on her clean apron—as a mere useless form—and then held it out to the visitor, saying, with the scorn of conventionality and the freedom of an old family servant: