“It is about as clean as I can make it,” said Sylvia, with a dreary sigh.
“As clean as you can make it? Have you not a servant, my dear?”
“Oh no; we do not keep a servant.”
“Then I expect my work is cut out for me,” said Jasper, who was thoroughly good-natured, and had taken an immense fancy to Sylvia.
“Please,” said the girl earnestly, “you must not attempt to make the place look the least bit better; if you do, father will find out, and then——”
“Find out!” said Jasper. “If I were you, you poor little thing, I would let him. But there! I am in, and possession is everything. I have brought my supper with me, and I thought maybe you would not mind sharing it. I have it in this basket. This basket contains what I require for the night and our supper as well. I pay you twenty shillings a week, and buy my own coals, so I suppose at night at least I may have a big fire.”
Here Jasper went to a large, old-fashioned wooden hod, and taking big lumps of coal, put them on the fire. It blazed right merrily, and the heat filled the room. Sylvia stole close to it and stretched out her thin, white hands for the warmth.
“How delicious!” she said.
“You poor girl! Can you spend the rest of the evening with me?”
“I must go to father. But, do you know, he has prohibited anything but bread for supper.”