But by this time she had got interested in the story.
"I shall not get up yet," she said.
"Then, please, ma'am," replied Mary, "would you mind letting Jemima dress you?
I want to go out again, and should be glad if you could do without me for some days.

My friend's baby is dead, and both she and her husband are very ill." Hesper threw down her book, and her eyes flamed.
"What do you mean by using me so, Miss Marston ?" she said.
"I am very sorry to put you to inconvenience," answered Mary; "but the husband seems dying, and the wife is scarcely able to crawl." "I have nothing to do with it," interrupted Hesper.

"When you made it necessary for me to part with my maid, you undertook to perform her duties.

I did not engage you as a sick-nurse for other people." "'No, ma'am," replied Mary; "but this is an extreme case, and I can not believe you will object to my going." "I do object.

How, pray, is the world to go on, if this kind of thing be permitted! I may be going out to dinner, or to the opera to-night, for anything you know, and who is there to dress me?
No; on principle, and for the sake of example, I will not let you go." "I thought," said Mary, not a little disappointed in Hesper, "I did not stand to you quite in the relation of an ordinary servant." "Certainly you do not: I look for a little more devotion from you than from a common, ungrateful creature who thinks only of herself.