A door was open at the end of a passage, and from the odor that met her, it seemed likely to be that of the kitchen.

She approached, and peeped in.
"Who is that ?" cried a voice irate.
It was the voice of the second cook, who was there supreme except when the _chef_ was present.

Mary stepped in, and the woman advanced to meet her.
"May I ask to what I am indebted for the honner of this unexpected visit ?" said the second cook, whose head its overcharge of self-importance jerked hither and thither upon her neck, as she seized the opportunity of turning to her own use a sentence she had just read in the "Fireside Herald" which had taken her fancy--spoken by Lady Blanche Rivington Delaware to a detested lover disinclined to be dismissed.
"Would you please tell me where to find the second house-maid," said Mary.

"Mrs.Perkin has sent me to her room." "Why don't Mrs.Perkin show you the way, then ?" returned the woman.
"There ain't nobody else in the house as I knows on fit to send to the top o' them stairs with you.

A nice way Jemim' 'ill be in when _she_ comes 'ome, to find a stranger in her room!" The same instant, however, the woman bethought herself that, if what she had said in her haste were reported, it would be as much as her place was worth; and at once thereupon she assumed a more complaisant tone.