“Well, I guess mamma will be glad you have come,” Josephine pursued; “she has been nearly plagued to death with that Maggie Flynn—you’re to take her place, you know, as chambermaid and errand girl.” Star did not reply, and Miss Baker shot an indignant glance at the rude girl. The young stranger’s heart was swelling within her until it was nearly ready to burst with insulted pride and bitter disappointment. She had longed, when she had found herself alone in her room, to relieve herself with a burst of passionate weeping, but she dare not give way to it lest it should unfit her for everything during the day; but now it seemed as if she could not endure much more. She had never dreamed that such a reception as this awaited her. She had pictured to herself, many times, being drawn into the arms of a pleasant, gentle-voiced woman, who had loved her mother, and who would love her for that mother’s sake, if not for her own. She had thought to twine her arms about her neck, and, laying her head upon a sympathizing bosom, tell her of her dear parents, what their hopes and plans had been for her, and what her own desires for the future were, and expected to receive only kind and encouraging words in return. How different it all was, and how cruel that all her hopes must be crushed in this unfeeling way! She had been ambitious to become a cultivated woman and scholar, and to follow out her father’s plans for her education, and come up to his standard, which was a high one. But instead she found she was to be degraded to the level of a common servant, all her prospects destroyed, all her hopes crushed, and she felt as if she could not bear it. “I _will_ not submit to it. I _will_ not give up my hopes. _I will not be a servant_,” she kept saying over and over to herself, while she sat there and waited for Miss Baker to attend to her needs, and felt rather than saw Josephine’s impertinent inspection of her personal appearance. “You’ve got a wonderful head of hair,” that young lady at length observed, as she approached her after being released from the seamstress’ hands. “I think I never saw such a heavy braid before; and I believe it will just match Nellie Colton’s; she is papa’s niece. I’ll tell mamma to have a barber come and cut it off. Of course you can’t afford the time now to take care of it, and it would make such a splendid band for Nell.” Star regarded her in blank astonishment. The effrontery of this young lady was simply overpowering. “Indeed!” she at last quietly replied. “If Miss Colton is in need of a band of hair, she will doubtless find it at almost any hair store in the city. I intend to keep mine.” Miss Richards colored angrily, for Star’s great blue eyes met hers fearlessly, and her tone betrayed an independence which did not promise well for any tyranny which she might expect to exercise over her in the future. “You will do exactly as mamma desires, miss,” she cried and then turned and left the room.