Here's one!" And her mother, ingenuously startled and pleased, would exclaim: "Where, child ?" And she, still controlling herself, as befitted a superior being, would reply casually: "In your wardrobe, of course! You stuck to it there weren't any; but I was sure there were." II The dialogue which actually did accompany the presentation of the handkerchief, though roughly corresponding to her rehearsal of it, was lacking in the dramatic pungency necessary for a really effective triumph; the reason being that the thoughts of both mother and daughter were diverted in different ways from the handkerchief by the presence of Florrie in the kitchen.
Florrie was the new servant, and she had come into the house that morning.

Sponsored by an aunt who was one of the best of the Calder Street tenants, Florrie had been accepted rather unwillingly, the objection to her being that she was too young--thirteen and a half.

Mrs.
Lessways had a vague humanitarian sentiment against the employment of children; as for Hilda's feeling, it was at one moment more compassionate even than her mother's, and at another almost cynically indifferent.

The aunt, however, a person of powerful common sense, had persuaded Mrs.Lessways that the truest kindness would be to give Florrie a trial.

Florrie was very strong, and she had been brought up to work hard, and she enjoyed working hard.