“This is the room of the nussery governess,” said the offended housemaid, her nose in the air. “The room on your right is the school-room, Miss Bird. That on the left is the nussery. You are to have your room to yourself, Miss Bird, which I hopes will suit you. There’s no petting of governesses in this here ’stablishment. You rises at seven, Miss Bird, and eats with the children. You begins lessons at nine o’clock, Miss Bird, and keeps ’em up till luncheon, and then comes music, langwidges, and them sort. Dinner in the school-room, Miss Bird, at five o’clock. Your evenings you has to yourself.”
“I shall receive my list of duties from Mrs. Blight,” said Lally pleasantly, “but I am obliged to you all the same.”
The housemaid’s face softened under Lally’s gentleness and sweetness.
“I wouldn’t wonder if she was a born lady, after all,” the girl thought. “She won’t stand putting down, and her face is that sorrowful I pity her.”
But she did not give expression to these thoughts. What she did say was this:
“My name’s Loizy, and if I can do anything for you just let me know. There’s my bell, and I must go. When you get ready, come down stairs to Missus’s boo-door.”
She vanished just as the house boy, or Buttons, as he was called, appeared with Lally’s box. He set this down near the door, and also departed. Left alone, Lally examined her new home with a faint thrill of interest.
The floor was bare, with the exception of a strip of loose and threadbare carpet before the low brass bedstead. There was a chintz-covered couch, a chintz-covered easy-chair, a chest of drawers, and a green-shuttered blind at the single window. The room had a dreary aspect, but to Lally it was a haven of refuge.
She locked her door and knelt down and prayed, thanking God that He had been so good to her as to give her a safe shelter and a home. Then, rising, she dressed herself as quickly as possible, putting on her black alpaca dress, a spotless linen collar and cuffs, a black sash, and a black ribbon in her hair. Thus attired, she descended the stairs, finding the way to the boudoir, at the door of which she knocked.
Mrs. Blight’s languid voice bade her enter.