"She is a very considerate person; but I suppose, in any house, her instincts would naturally draw her toward the cook." When Ralph turned to La Fleur, and assured her that his sister would be glad to have her visit the kitchen, the old woman, who had not taken her eyes from him for an instant, thanked him with great unction, again bowed, courtesied, smiled, and, being shown the way to the kitchen, descended.
Molly Tooney, who was sitting on a low stool, paring potatoes, looked up in amazement at the person who entered her kitchen.

It was not an obsequious old woman she saw, but a sedate, dignified, elderly person, with her brows somewhat knitted.

Throwing about her a glance, which was not one of admiration, La Fleur remarked,-- "I suppose you are the cook of the house." "Indade, an' I am," said Molly, still upon the stool, with a knife in one hand, and a potato, with a long paring hanging from it, in the other; "an' the washer-woman, an' the chambermaid, an' the butler, too, as loike as may be.

An' who may you be, an' which do you want to see ?" "I am Madame La Fleur," said the other, with a stateliness that none of her mistresses ever supposed that she possessed.

"I came to see Mrs.
Drane, in whose service I was formerly engaged, and I wish to know for myself what sort of a person was cooking for the ladies whose meals I used to prepare." Molly put down her knife and her half-pared potato, and arose.