"Do you think Mrs. Falkener enjoys it?" "I wasn't thinking of Mrs. Falkener," replied Jane-Ellen, with a twinkle in her eyes. "Burton!" called Mrs. Falkener's voice from the head of the stairs. Crane and his cook drew slightly closer together, as if against a common enemy. "Do you suppose she can have heard us?" he asked. "I think she's perfectly capable of trying to hear." Crane smiled. "I took a great risk, Jane-Ellen, when I advised you to be candid." "Burton!" said the voice again. "Merciful powers!" exclaimed Crane. "She calls like Juliet's nurse." The cook laughed. "But you must be prompter than Juliet was." "What do you know about Shakespeare, Jane-Ellen?" "Moving pictures have been a great education to the lower classes, you know, sir." He moved toward the stairs, but turned back to say, "Good-by, Jane-Ellen." She answered: "'Think you that we shall ever meet again?'" and then even she seemed to feel that she had committed an imprudence and she dashed away to the kitchen. Crane ascended the stairs slowly, for he was trying to recall the lines that follow Juliet's pathetic question, when he suddenly became aware of Mrs. Falkener's feet planted firmly on the top step, and then of that lady's whole majestic presence. He pulled himself together with an effort. "Do you suppose that girl could have dropped that lid on purpose?" he asked, as if this were the question he had been so deeply pondering. "I feel not the least doubt of it," returned Mrs. Falkener. He shook his head. "It seems almost incredible," he answered, moving swiftly across the hall toward the sitting-room, where Tucker and Miss Falkener were visible. "On the contrary," replied the elder lady, "it seems to me perfectly in keeping with the whole conduct of this extraordinary young person." They had now entered the room, and she included Tucker and her daughter in an account of the incident. "You know, Solon, and you, too, Cora, how easy I am on servants. I must admit, every one will confirm it, that my own servants adore me. They adore me, don't they, Cora? No wonder. I see to their comfort. They have their own bath, and a sitting-room far better than anything I had myself as a young woman. But in return I do demand respect, absolute respect. And when I am looking into an ice-box, examining it, at Burton's special request, to have that young minx slam down the lid, almost catching my nose, Solon, I assure you, almost touching my nose, as she did it!" Tucker listened attentively, tapping his eye-glasses on his left palm. Then he said: "And what did you do about it, Burton?" Crane had gone to the bookcases and taken down a volume of Shakespeare. He was so profoundly immersed that Tucker had to repeat his question. This is what he was reading: _Juliet_: Think you that we shall ever meet again? _Romeo_: I doubt it not, and all our woes shall serve For pleasant converse in the days to come.