"Here you will sit, madam, with the young ladies," said Mrs. Aylward.
"They have a maid-servant who will wait on you, and if you require
anything, you will be pleased to speak to me. My Lady wishes you to
take charge of them, and likewise to execute the piece of embroidery
you will find in that frame, with the materials. This will be your
apartment, and you can take the young ladies into the garden and
park, wherever you please, except that they must not make a noise
before the windows of the other wing, which you will see closed with
shutters, for those are Mr. Belamour's rooms."
With these words Mrs. Aylward curtsied as if about to retire, Aurelia
held out her hand in entreaty. "Oh, cannot you stay with me?"
"No, madam, my office is the housekeeper's," was the stiff response.
"Molly will call me if you require my services. I think you said you
preferred bread and milk for breakfast. Dinner will be served at one."
Mrs. Aylward retreated, leaving a chill on the heart of the lonely girl.
She was a clergyman's widow, though with no pretensions to gentility,
and was a plain, conscientious, godly woman, but with the narrow self-
concentrated piety of the time, which seemed to ignore all the active
part of the duty to our neighbour. She had lived many years as a
faithful retainer to the Belamour family, and avoided perplexity by
minding no one's business but her own, and that thoroughly.
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