But since the death of Hope's mother Mrs.Simcoe was the only incumbent.

She had been Mrs.Wayne's nurse in her last moments, and had rocked the little Hope to sleep the night after her mother's burial.

She was always tidy, erect, imperturbable.

She pervaded the house; and her eye was upon a table-cloth, a pane of glass, or a carpet, almost as soon as the spot which arrested it.

Housekeeper _nascitur non fit_.