"If it hadn't been for you, I should have been in solitary again," said O'Brien, after she left. "How I hate that woman!" "And so do I, and so do I!" was echoed round the room. "If you hate such ways never copy them!" "What's the use in scolding us! She knows we can't help the victuals. If she wants to scold anybody she'd better scold the Master." "He'd sauce her back again; and then, both of 'em would get locked up. Wouldn't you like to see 'em both locked up?" said Lissett. "Yes, that I should!" was echoed all around. "I'd like to cut the bread for 'em," said O'Brien. "The slices would be thin." "I would draw small quarts of water," said Lissett. "Hush, girls! Don't you know that you are now indulging in the very temper that looks so hateful to you when you see it in others." Scarcely was I relieved of Mrs. Hardhack's anti-benign influence, when the Receiving Matron made her appearance, and asked, although in a very different manner,-- "Why didn't the women bring over their clothes?" "What clothes?" "Their sheets to be washed. This is their day. They take them from their beds when they get up, and carry them to the wash-house as they go down to the shop. My women, and the four who were sent up from the shop to help them, have lost an hour by the delay. I don't mind about mine; but the shop women will be late back; and then, I shall be complained of that I did not drive them hard enough, and get the work out of them sooner." "I didn't know anything about it. If you had told me last night I would have attended to it. Some of the women asked me if they should take out their sheets; but I didn't know what they meant, and told them I would see. I will send the sweeps to gather them up immediately, and send them over." "I forgot to tell you last night. They won't blame you but me; there is the trouble. I hate to have the Master come around, and find fault." "Are you afraid of him?" "No! I'm not a prisoner; but I always feel uncomfortable where he is, don't you?" "I have only seen him once or twice; and then I was very much inclined to laugh at the pompous airs he put on; but a sense of propriety restrained me." "I had a great deal rather not see him, especially, when he comes to find fault." "He ought not to find fault with you in this instance. You are under no obligation to teach me the duties of my department. If you attend to the work in your own you do your duty." "I know that, but I can't help myself. He says I am here to do whatever he orders me, and that I must do it if I stay. I am a widow, and have a boy to support, so I try to do all I can." "He knows that?" "Yes, they all know it." "And he takes advantage of it to compel you to do his wife's work while he gets the pay for it." "That is the plain English of the whole thing." "But you can get more pay outside for less work than you do here." "Perhaps so, if I knew how to find it; but I never have been so fortunate as to find it before."