On this occasion she had, with the best intention, bustled about; but had always done precisely the reverse of what she was told to do.
At last, breaking out into German invective, her mistress had given her a rather decided push from the room, and had called Alexander to come to her rescue.
"The slut! Look at the dust on the harpsichord! Did I not tell her to remove every speck before it was placed by the window? I would fifty times sooner do all the work myself. What would our mother say at all this?"
"Heaven knows!" Alex said, laughing. "But, sister, the room looks spick and span; and here is an arrival."
"It is only Mr. Travers; he is to play the second violin. Entertain him, Alex, while I go and make my toilette."
Repairing to the humble bedroom, which was really the only space allotted to her—or, rather, that she allotted to herself—she changed her morning-wrapper for a sacque of pale blue, and twisted a ribbon to match it in her fair hair. As she was descending again to the drawing-room, she heard her brother William's voice.
"I have concluded the business about the removal to King Street, and we must make the move as soon as possible."
"Now—at once?"
"Yes; the garden slopes well to the river. There will be a magnificent sky-line, and room for the great venture. The casting of the great thirty-foot——"
"Yes, William—yes; but the people are arriving, and you must be in your place downstairs."