"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Lady Garribardine, when she was told, and, seizing the receiver from Katherine's hand, she roared: "Don't be a fool, G.--it is too late in the day to stand upon your dignity--I'll tell you the rest when you come to lunch."--Upon which she closed the communication and called for Stirling. "Take all this rubbish of letters away, Miss Bush--I must get up and cope with the humiliating defects of old age--you may go." Katherine had a very busy morning in front of her. She sat steadily typing and writing in the secretary's room, until her lunch was brought and even then she hardly stopped to eat it, but on her own way to the dining-room Lady Garribardine came in. She looked at the hardly tasted food and blinked her black eyes: "Tut, tut! You must eat, child--_pas trop de zèle_--Finish your pudding--and then bring me those two letters upon the report of the Wineberger charity--into the dining-room--You can have your coffee with us--Mr. Strobridge and I are alone, Mrs. Delemar is not coming, after all--By the way, do you have everything you want? The coffee they give you is good, eh? Servants always skimp the beans when left to themselves." "I have everything I want, thank you--but I have not been offered coffee," Katherine replied. Lady Garribardine's face assumed an indignant expression, and she sharply rang the bell. "These are the things that happen when one does not know of them--you ought to have complained to me before, Miss Bush!" Thomas answered the bell and whitened perceptibly when he saw his mistress's face. He was asked why Miss Bush had not been served with coffee, in a voice which froze his tongue, and the only excuse he could give was a stammering statement that Miss Arnott had not taken any, which aroused further wrath. "Pampered wretches!" Lady Garribardine exclaimed. "Anything to save themselves trouble! I will speak to Bronson about this--but see that it never happens again, Thomas!" And the trembling footman was allowed to leave the room. "I am glad you did not try to defend them, as the foolish Arnott would have done," Her Ladyship flashed. "She was always standing between my just wrath and the servant's delinquencies, always shielding them--one would have thought she was of their class. The result was no one in the house respected her--good creature though she was. See that you are respected, young woman, and obeyed when obedience is your due." "I will try to be"--and an inscrutable expression played round Katherine's full red mouth. "I would never shield anyone from what he deserved." "It seems to me you understand a good deal, girl!--Well, come into the dining-room in half an hour," and, smiling her comprehending smile, Lady Garribardine left the room.