"Where is she going to sleep to-night?" asked Miss Margaret.
"I don't know, I am sure I suppose I shall have to have a cot brought in here for her."
"What a plague!" said Miss Margaret. "It will lumber up the room so! There's no place to put it. Couldn't she sleep with Timmins?"
"Oh, she could, of course just as well as not only people would make such a fuss about it it wouldn't do; we must bear it for once. I'll try and not be caught in such a scrape again."
"How provoking!" said Miss Margaret "how came father to do so, without asking you about it?"
"Oh, he was bewitched, I suppose men always are. Look here, Margaret I can't go down to tea with a train of children at my heels. I shall leave you and Ellen up here, and I'll send up your tea to you."
"Oh no, Mamma!" said Margaret, eagerly "I want to go down with you. Look here, Mamma! she's asleep, and you needn't wake her up that's excuse enough; you can leave her to have her tea up here, and let me go down with you."
"Well," said Mrs. Dunscombe, "I don't care but make haste to get ready, for I expect every minute when the tea-bell will ring."
"Timmins! Timmins!" cried Margaret, "come here and fix me quick! and step softly, will you? or you'll wake that young one up, and then, you see, I shall have to stay up stairs."
This did not happen, however. Ellen's sleep was much too deep to be easily disturbed. The tea-bell itself, loud and shrill as it was, did not even make her eyelids tremble. After Mrs. and Miss Dunscombe were gone down, Timmins employed herself a little while in putting all things about the room to rights; and then sat down to take her rest, dividing her attention between the fire and Ellen, towards whom she seemed to feel more and more kindness, as she saw that she was likely to receive it from no one else. Presently came a knock at the door "The tea for the young lady," on a waiter. Miss Timmins silently took the tray from the man, and shut the door. "Well!" said she to herself "if that ain't a pretty supper to send up to a child that has gone two hundred miles to-day, and had no breakfast! a cup of tea, cold enough, I'll warrant bread and butter enough for a bird and two little slices of ham as thick as a wafer! Well, I just wish Mrs. Dunscombe had to eat it herself, and nothing else! I'm not going to wake her up for that, I know, till I see whether something better ain't to be had for love or money. So just you sleep on, darling, till I see what I can do for you."