Above this rose tall trees, and the wall itself was overgrown with ivy.

It apparently was old and concealed an unfinished palace of the sleeping beauty, so ragged and wild appeared the growth which peeped over the guardian wall.
With a quickness of perception unusual in her class, Susan took all this in, then rang the bell.

There was no back door, so far as she could see, and she thought it best to enter as she had done in the morning.

But the large fat woman who opened the door gave her to understand that she had taken a liberty.
"Of course this morning and before engaging, you were a lady," said the cook, hustling the girl into the hall, "but now being the housemaid, Miss Loach won't be pleased at your touching the front bell." "I did not see any other entrance," protested Susan.
"Ah," said the cook, leading the way down a few steps into the thatched cottage, which, it appeared was the servants' quarters, "you looked down the area as is natural-like.

But there ain't none, it being a conservitery!" "Why does Miss Loach live in the basement ?" asked Susan, on being shown into a comfortable room which answered the purpose of a servants' hall.
The cook resented this question.