Jane ignored both. "There is nothing the matter, sir," she said icily, and drew back to let him pass. CHAPTER X More than a fortnight had passed and Jane was still engaged in "doing second work" in the modest detached villa, otherwise known as the residence of Mr. and Mrs. James Livingstone Belknap. Toward the end of her first week of service she had received a letter from her good friend, Bertha Forbes, urging her to return to England at once in the company of an acquaintance who was to be sent across on customhouse business. "I will arrange for the transportation," added Miss Forbes generously; "I want to feel that you are safe at home with your family once more." Jane read this letter at the close of a peculiarly trying day, in which she had encountered divers rapids and cross currents in both kitchen and parlor. Mary MacGrotty was downright cross, Master Belknap peculiarly and aggravatingly mischievous, and Mrs. Belknap, grievously disappointed in her enlarged _ménage_, inclined to concentrate her irritation upon Jane's defenseless head. "Sure, an' that gurl's more trouble than she's worth to ye," Mary MacGrotty had declared; "an' I towld yez when I come as how I c'u'dn't stan' fer no second gurl under me feet." "If you weren't away so often, Mary," began Mrs. Belknap weakly, "I should----" "Sure, an' I can't help _that_," interjected Miss MacGrotty strongly. "Blood is thicker 'an water, I'm thinkin', an' me fambly is that delicut an' ailin'. Me cousin's wife's mother was tuk bad of a Sunday," she added darkly. "I'm expectin' to hear of her death most any minute, an' the fun'ral 'll be to Brooklyn." Mrs. Belknap sighed apprehensively. "By the way, Mary," she observed in a carefully modulated voice, which asked for information only, "have you chanced to see my carved shell comb anywhere about the house? I must have dropped it from my hair, I think, and I haven't been able to find it." Mary MacGrotty faced about. "I have _not_!" she said emphatically. Then she pursed up her lips. "Hev you asked _her_, mum?" she demanded in a sepulchral whisper. "You mean Jane? Oh, yes, I told her of my loss yesterday. Never mind; I dare say I shall find it soon. I hope so, anyway. It was rather a valuable comb, given me by Mr. Belknap soon after we were married, so I think a good deal of it." Miss MacGrotty's red elbows vibrated slightly as her mistress left the kitchen; and Jane, who entered a moment later in quest of a glass of water for her young charge, found her smiling evilly into the depths of an iron pot. "If you've got her comb hid away anywheres," muttered Mary, "you'd better watch out; she's onto yez!" "But I haven't hidden her comb," retorted Jane, shaken out of her usual attitude of calm disdain toward the presiding genius of the kitchen. "You know I wouldn't do such a thing." "Aw; do I, thin'!" jeered Miss MacGrotty. "Well, you moind what I say; that's all! _I_ ain't a-goin' to be blamed fer your doin's, miss."