'Isn't this grand, Dolly?' her husband said, rubbing his hands together
and looking about him complacently.
'Yes, very grand,' Dolly answered him; but somehow it makes me feel
weaker than water. I suppose, though, I shall get accustomed to it.'
CHAPTER IV.
GETTING ACCUSTOMED TO IT.
In the absence of Mrs. Crawford, who for a week or more had been
domesticated in the cottage in the lane, as the house was designated
which Arthur had given her, there was no one to receive the strangers
except the cook and the house-maid, and as Mrs. Tracy entered the hall
the two came forward, bristling with criticism, and ready to resent
anything like interference in the new-comers.
The servants at the park had not been pleased with the change of
administration. That Mr. Arthur was a gentleman whom it was an honor to
serve, they all conceded; but with regard to the new master and
mistress, they had grave doubts. Although none of them had been at the
park on the occasion of Mrs. Tracy's first visit there, many rumors
concerning her had reached them, and she would scarcely have recognized
herself could she have heard the remarks of which she was the subject.
That she had worked in a factory--which was true--was her least offence,
for it was whispered that once, when the winter was unusually severe,
and work scarce, she had gone to a soup-house, and even asked and
procured coal from the poor-master for herself and her mother.
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