“We were indeed, dear!” said Mrs. Martin, and she leaned back comfortably and smiled as she had not smiled before. Mrs. Todd gave a satisfied nod and glance, as if to say that things were going on as well as possible in this anxious moment. “Yes,” said Mrs. Martin again, drawing her chair a little nearer, “’twas a very remarkable thing; we were born the same day, and at exactly the same hour, after you allowed for all the difference in time. My father figured it out sea-fashion. Her Royal Majesty and I opened our eyes upon this world together; say what you may, ’tis a bond between us.” Mrs. Todd assented with an air of triumph, and untied her hat-strings and threw them back over her shoulders with a gallant air. “And I married a man by the name of Albert, just the same as she did, and all by chance, for I didn’t get the news that she had an Albert too till a fortnight afterward; news was slower coming then than it is now. My first baby was a girl, and I called her Victoria after my mate; but the next one was a boy, and my husband wanted the right to name him, and took his own name and his brother Edward’s, and pretty soon I saw in the paper that the little Prince o’ Wales had been christened just the same. After that I made excuse to wait till I knew what she’d named her children. I didn’t want to break the chain, so I had an Alfred, and my darling Alice that I lost long before she lost hers, and there I stopped. If I’d only had a dear daughter to stay at home with me, same’s her youngest one, I should have been so thankful! But if only one of us could have a little Beatrice, I’m glad ’twas the Queen; we’ve both seen trouble, but she’s had the most care.” I asked Mrs. Martin if she lived alone all the year, and was told that she did except for a visit now and then from one of her grandchildren, “the only one that really likes to come an’ stay quiet ’long o’ grandma. She always says quick as she’s through her schoolin’ she’s goin’ to live with me all the time, but she’s very pretty an’ has taking ways,” said Mrs. Martin, looking both proud and wistful, “so I can tell nothing at all about it! Yes, I’ve been alone most o’ the time since my Albert was taken away, and that’s a great many years; he had a long time o’ failing and sickness first.” (Mrs. Todd’s foot gave an impatient scuff on the floor.) “An’ I’ve always lived right here. I ain’t like the Queen’s Majesty, for this is the only palace I’ve got,” said the dear old thing, smiling again. “I’m glad of it too, I don’t like changing about, an’ our stations in life are set very different. I don’t require what the Queen does, but sometimes I’ve thought ’twas left to me to do the plain things she don’t have time for. I expect she’s a beautiful housekeeper, nobody couldn’t have done better in her high place, and she’s been as good a mother as she’s been a queen.”