“I am going just like the other girls, a common waitress, to see how it seems,” she said to her mother and Kate when, on her return from New York, she repeated the particulars of her interview with Mrs. Pledger and Mrs. Groves, the latter of whom she did not quite like. “She acted as if there was an immeasurable distance between us, and said that at Maplehurst I would be known as No. 1 among the waitresses, because she had accepted me first, and I am to wear caps. She laid great stress on that.” “The snob! I hope you told her you’d never wear that badge of servitude,” Kate said, with a stamp of her foot. Caps were not common in Buford. Even the Saltus servants did not wear them, and Kate was hot with indignation. But Sherry only laughed, saying she would as soon wear a cap as not, but when Kate asked suddenly, “Did you tell her that you sometimes walked in your sleep?” she was startled, and replied: “Why should I, when I haven’t walked for years, and why did you put it into my mind to think about it? Perhaps I shall now get up some night and frighten them to death.” “I hope you will. That would be jolly. Caps and snobs!” Kate said, but Sherry’s face was clouded by this reminder of a disagreeable habit of her childhood, which she believed she had outgrown, but which might come back if she allowed her thoughts to dwell upon it. Her will and nerves, however, were strong, and in the weeks which passed before she was due at Maplehurst she had so much to think about that the sleep-walking was nearly forgotten, or remembered only as something which had been, but would never be again. CHAPTER VII MAPLEHURST