Brympton wanted anything, she rang for Agnes,
who had to walk the whole length of the servants' wing to call me.
But that wasn't the only queer thing in the house. The very next day
I found out that Mrs. Brympton had no nurse; and then I asked Agnes
about the woman I had seen in the passage the afternoon before.
Agnes said she had seen no one, and I saw that she thought I was
dreaming. To be sure, it was dusk when we went down the passage, and
she had excused herself for not bringing a light; but I had seen the
woman plain enough to know her again if we should meet. I decided
that she must have been a friend of the cook's, or of one of the
other women-servants: perhaps she had come down from town for a
night's visit, and the servants wanted it kept secret. Some ladies
are very stiff about having their servants' friends in the house
overnight. At any rate, I made up my mind to ask no more questions.
In a day or two, another odd thing happened. I was chatting one
afternoon with Mrs. Blinder, who was a friendly disposed woman, and
had been longer in the house than the other servants, and she asked
me if I was quite comfortable and had everything I needed. I said I
had no fault to find with my place or with my mistress, but I
thought it odd that in so large a house there was no sewing-room for
the lady's maid.
"Why," says she, "there _is_ one; the room you're in is the old
sewing-room."
"Oh," said I; "and where did the other lady's maid sleep?"
At that she grew confused, and said hurriedly that the servants'
rooms had all been changed about last year, and she didn't rightly
remember.
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