There are five or six of us altogether, all ladies'-maids, miss; and there's nothing on earth to do all the day long, only sit and do a little needlework over the fire." A few minutes before eight Lady Glencora knocked at Alice's door, and took her arm to lead her to the drawing-room.

Alice saw that she was magnificently dressed, with an enormous expanse of robe, and that her locks had been so managed that no one could suspect the presence of a grey hair.

Indeed, with all her magnificence, she looked almost a child.

"Let me see," she said, as they went down-stairs together.
"I'll tell Jeffrey to take you in to dinner.

He's about the easiest young man we have here.