“Humph! what is it to you whether I rest well or not?” bluntly demanded her patron, while she searched her face with her keen black eyes. Salome looked up surprised. “Why,” she answered sweetly, “in my own home I was taught to take leave of my parents when I retired, and to say something pleasant and courteous before leaving them; and truly, Miss Leonard, I do hope that you may have a comfortable night. Is there anything that I can do for you before I go?” “No, child, no. Good-night,” Miss Leonard returned, in a mollified tone, while a slight flush for a moment intensified the sallowness of her face; then, as Harriet came, Salome went away to her own room. “What do you think of her, Harriet?” Miss Leonard demanded of her maid, when, a few moments later, she was herself preparing to retire. “She seems like a nice kind of person, pleasant-spoken and good-natured,” the girl responded. “Humph! she isn’t what she seems, by a good deal,” curtly observed her mistress. “Marm?” and Harriet looked surprised. “She never was brought up to work for her living; she was reared a lady,” explained Miss Leonard. “So I thought, marm,” quietly observed the maid, but with an enlightened smile. “Oh, you did, did you? Pray what caused you to arrive at such an astute conclusion?” sarcastically demanded her mistress. “Well, marm, as you know, I’ve served gentlefolks ever since I was a girl, and I can tell a lady after I’ve seen her eat one meal, let alone her other manners.” “Really!” “Yes’m,” asserted Harriet, in nowise daunted by her mistress’ mocking tone; “they’ll always show at table whether they’ve been served and taught genteel manners, and Miss Howland never once made a mistake at dinner.” “Don’t you suppose I know it as well as you?” snapped the elder woman. “There, turn out the gas and then go; but you may tell cook to make coffee in the morning—it isn’t likely the girl is fond of that weak cocoa that I have to drink.” Harriet quietly obeyed her orders, and then softly withdrew from the room, smiling wisely to herself at this evidence of Miss Leonard’s appreciation of her new companion, for never before had she been known to give an order independent of her own interests. CHAPTER XXVII. SALOME HAS A STARTLING EXPERIENCE. Salome was not destined to have an easy time in her new position. If Miss Leonard recognized the fact that she had been reared a lady, she did not betray it in her treatment of her, and before the first week of her month had expired, the tired girl began to wonder if she could have patience to pursue the same routine, always under the same disagreeable circumstances. She felt that she never could have submitted to the whims and caprices, to the despotism and variable disposition of this strange woman, if she had not overheard that conversation between Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Allison in the art-room.