The little girls had been taken charge of by Mrs. Ross's maid, Paterson, and the housekeeper told Joyce that when she was ready she was to come to her own room for refreshment. "Here are your boxes in good time," said Mrs. Powell; and thus Joyce was able to make the needed change in her dress. She was about to go down, when, recollecting her new position, she turned back for one of the aprons, ironed so carefully by Sarah Keene's hands, and over which, as badges of coming servitude for her darling, she had shed many a tear. "Never mind," thought Joyce; "they are honourable badges, so long as they accompany faithful performance of duty, work done as in God's sight, and depending for its success on His blessing." So, with a bright face, the reflection of a brave heart, she went down, after having occupied a few moments in thanking God for a safe journey and a kind reception. "I always have an early cup of tea," said Mrs. Powell, "and I thought it would be the best for you, along with something more substantial, after a journey. Your future meals will be taken upstairs with the children. Mrs. Ross will see you in the morning; but she and the master are away—only for the day; they will be back to-night. My mistress trusted you to me, and I promised to make you comfortable," said Mrs. Powell, with a look of great kindness in her motherly face. "It was very good of her to leave me in such hands," said Joyce, with an answering smile. Then Mrs. Powell dropped her voice to a whisper— "Let me say a word about yourself, my dear. My mistress trusts me, and she said—only to me, mind—that the friend who wrote in answer to her inquiries had told her a little of your history. How that you were a lady, used to be served instead of serving others, and that if you chose to accept a home with her, there was one open to you; but that you preferred service to a life of dependence." "What did Mrs. Ross say? I hope she did not think I wished to deceive her in any way," said Joyce. "No, indeed. She honours you for preferring work to dependence, and says that if she finds you what she has been led to expect, you, in turn, shall find a real home and true friends at Springfield Park. There, my dear, I hope you will sleep the sounder for knowing this; and if it will comfort you to hear it, my heart warms to you, and you have one friend already." To Joyce this was like having her old friend Sarah Keene by her side, and she thanked the kindly housekeeper most heartily and gratefully for her encouraging words. But the tea was being neglected, and Mrs. Powell turned Joyce's attention in that direction; so, impelled by a healthy girlish appetite, she made a hearty meal, much to her new friend's satisfaction.