She was neat, capable, and obliging; but it did not take her long to discover just how much--and how little--her mistress really knew of practical housekeeping.

Matters and things were very different then.

Mary Ellen became argumentative, impertinent, and domineering.

She openly shirked her work, when it pleased her so to do, and demanded perquisites and privileges so insolently that even William asked Billy one day whether Mary Ellen or Billy herself were the mistress of the Strata: and Bertram, with mock humility, inquired how _soon_ Mary Ellen would be wanting the house.

Billy, in weary despair, submitted to this bullying for almost a week; then, in a sudden accession of outraged dignity that left Mary Ellen gasping with surprise, she told the girl to go.
And thus the days passed.