“How did you find them all at home, Bridget?” “Hearty, ma’am, thank ye;” and the girl moved busily about the room. She was my chambermaid, and although she had only lived with me a little while, I felt very much attached to her, for she was so kind, industrious and honest. Soon after she came to us I was seized with a painful illness, and during it, she nursed me with the tenderness of a sister; often, when the spasms of acute pain would shake my feeble body, I had seen large tears standing in her full, round eye. As she assisted me in undressing, I observed that she was not in her usual spirits, and when she handed me my dressing-gown, I saw that her hands trembled. But she patiently went through every little duty, although I could well see that she was suffering from some hidden trouble. When I sat down to my reading, she left me to prepare for me some tea—for, dear reader, I am a true old maid, and love my cup of tea, as well as I love my existence almost. Presently she re-entered, and rolling a little teapoy beside my chair, she placed on it the waiter, and poured out my tea. Just then I heard the heavy breathing of my dear Aunt Mary, who was asleep in the adjoining room. “Close the door of Aunt Mary’s room, my good Bridget,” I said; “and while I drink my tea and eat this nice piece of toast you have made me, come and tell me something about Ireland.” I knew this would please her; for often had she talked to me at night, when I would be undressing, about the glens and vales of beautiful, song-famed Coleraine; and the fairies, with their round rings in the grass. She had never seen a fairy her own self, but “Elsie the child” her sister had, and the “_little body_,” as she called the fairy, had pinched the poor “_wean_ Elsie.” Then again on Sunday, or holyday nights, she would tell me how, when a child, she had wished to be a nun, and that she would go out in the dark, pitch night, and kneel on the ground in the middle of their garden, and ask the good Virgin and the Saints to pray for her—for Bridget has always been a religious girl.