"I positively dare not order you fresh tea--in the circumstances.

Jane would probably retaliate with an ultimatum involving a rigid choice between tea and the preparation of your room, accompanied by a pithy summary of the capabilities of one pair of hands." "Wouldn't you like some tea yourself ?" hazarded Sara.
"I should--very much.

But I see no prospect of getting any while Jane maintains her present attitude of mind." "Then--if you will show me the kitchen--_I'll_ make some," announced Sara valiantly.
Selwyn regarded her with a pitying smile.
"You don't know Jane," he said.

"Trespassers in the kitchen are not--welcomed." "And Jane doesn't know _me_," replied Sara firmly.
"On your own head be it, then," retorted the doctor, and led the way to the sacrosanct domain presided over by Jane Crab.
How Sara managed it Selwyn never knew, but she contrived to invade Jane's kitchen and perform the office of tea-making without offending her in the very least.

Nay, more, by some occult process known only to herself, she succeeded in winning Jane's capacious heart, and from that moment onwards, the autocrat of the kitchen became her devoted satellite; and later, when Sara started to make drastic changes in the slip-shod arrangements of the house, her most willing ally.
"Miss Tennant's the only body in the place as has got some sense in her head," she was heard to observe on more than one occasion..