"I should think not!" and again the strange woman arose, and going to the window, opened it, as if in sudden heat.
Then, returning to her niece, she continued:
"Were you in earnest when you said you would take a position as housemaid?"
"Yes," was the reply; and Miss McPherson went on:
"Do you think you could fill it?"
"I know I could, I have been housemaid at home all my life. We never kept any female servant but Dorothy."
There was a moment's silence, while Miss McPherson seemed to be thinking, and then she said:
"Will you take that place with me?"
"With you?" Bessie repeated, a little bewildered; and her aunt replied:
"Yes, with me. Why not? Better serve me than a stranger. My second girl, Sarah, was married a few weeks ago!—more fool she!—and I have no one as yet in her place. If you will like it, and fill it as well as she did, I will give you what I gave her, two dollars and a half a week, and more if you earn it. What do you say?"