"I do love you, granny; you were always so good to me, and you are so--so _fond_ of me. Now, you are tired, darling; you must take a little wine--here is Mrs. Sinnott coming--Mrs. Sinnott." "No, dear, no wine; I'm very well. I wish to see Mrs. Sinnott, though. She's your new housekeeper, is not she?" "Yes; and I'm so glad poor, good old Donnie Gwynn is with you. You know she would not stay; but our new housekeeper is, I'm told, a very good creature too. Grandmamma wants to speak to you, Mrs. Sinnott." Lady Alice by this time had entered the dressing-room, three sides of which, projecting like a truncated bastion, formed a great window, which made it, for its size, the best lighted in the house. In the wall at the right, close to this entrance, is the door which admits to the green chamber; in the opposite wall, but nearer the window, a door leading across the end of the hatchment-gallery, with its large high window, by a little passage, screened off by a low oak partition, and admitting to a bed-room on the opposite side of the gallery. In the middle of the Window dressing-room stood Lady Alice, and looked round regretfully, and said to herself, with a little shake of the head-- "Yes, yes, poor thing!" She was thinking of poor Lady Marlowe, whom, with her usual perversity, although a step-daughter, she had loved very tenderly, and who in her last illness had tenanted these rooms, in which, seventeen years ago, this old lady had sat beside her and soothed her sickness, and by her tenderness, no doubt, softened those untold troubles which gathered about her bed as death drew near. "How do you do, Mrs. Sinnott?" said stately Lady Alice, recovering her dry and lofty manner. "Lady Alice Redcliffe, my grandmamma," said Beatrix, in an undertoned introduction, in the housekeeper's ear. Mrs. Sinnott made a fussy little courtesy. "Your ladyship's apartments, which is at the other end of the gallery, please, is quite ready, my lady." "I don't mean to have those rooms, though--that's the reason I sent for you--please read this note, it is from Sir Jekyl Marlowe. By-the-bye, is your master at home?" "No, he was out." "Well, be so good as to read this." And Lady Alice placed Beatrix's note of invitation in Mrs. Sinnott's hand, and pointed to a passage in the autograph of Sir Jekyl, which spoke thus:-- "P.S.--Do come, dearest little mamma, and you shall command everything. Choose your own apartments and hours, and, in short, rule us all. With all my worldly goods I thee endow, and place Mrs. Sinnott at your orders." "Well, Mrs. Sinnott, I choose _these_ apartments, if you please," said Lady Alice, sitting down stiffly, and thereby taking possession. "Very well, my lady," said Mrs. Sinnott, dropping another courtesy; but her sharp red nose and little black eyes looked sceptical and uneasy; "and I suppose, Miss," here she paused, looking at Beatrix. "You are to do whatever Lady Alice directs," said the young lady.