But perhaps we had better tell it for her, because, for one reason, she suppressed much that would have vindicated herself; since to have related it would have criminated another. We will, with even-handed justice deal fairly by both.
CHAPTER IV.
A CHILD’S LOVE.
It is an olden story,
Yet, yet ’tis ever new,
And whensoe’er it happens,
It breaks the heart in two.
—From the German of Unger.
The late Mrs. Chief Justice Lyon had been a notable manager. She had looked well to her household, utterly scorning the idea of entrusting her domestic affairs to the hands of any hired housekeeper, until the infirmities of age came upon her, and she could no longer rise early and sit up late, or go up and down stairs a dozen times a day, as she had been accustomed to do.
Then she advertised for a housekeeper, who was required to be the nonpareil of matrons and managers, and to furnish the most unquestionable of references.
She received, in reply, just thirty-three letters from applicants for the place. Thirty-two were read, and cast into the waste paper basket, without even the honor of an answer.