The scandalised Million stared at me as we stood there in her hotel bedroom; a sturdy, trim little dark-haired figure in her new princesse petticoat that showed her firmly developed, short arms, helping me to put away the drifts of superfluous tissue-paper that had enwrapped her trousseau. I myself had never been so well dressed as in this dainty black-and-white livery. She exclaimed in tones of horror: "But you can't sit down to afternoon tea with two young gentlemen in your cap and apron!" "Of course not. I shan't be sitting down with them at all." "What?" "I shan't be having tea with you in the drawing-room," I explained. "Naturally I shall not appear this afternoon." "Wha--what'll you do, then?" "What does a good lady's-maid do? Sit in her bedroom, sorting her mistress's new lingerie and sewing name-tapes on to her mistress's silk stockings----" "What! And leave me alone, here?" remonstrated my mistress shrilly. "Me sit here by myself with those two young gentlemen, one of them a Honourable and a perfect stranger to me, and me too nervous to so much as ask them if they like one lump or two in their cups of tea? Oh, no! I couldn't do it----" "You'll have to," I said. "Ladies'-maids do not entertain visitors with their employers." "But----'Tisn't as if I was an ordinary employer! 'Tisn't as if you was an ordinary lady's-maid!" "Yes, it is, exactly." "But--they'll know you aren't. Why, that young Mr. Reginald Brace, him from the bank, he knows as well as you do who you are at home!" "That has nothing to do with him, or with your tea-party." "I don't want no tea-party if I'm goin' to be left all on me own, and nobody to help me talk to that Honourable," Million protested almost tearfully. "Lor'! If I'd a known, I'd never have said the gentlemen could come!" "Nonsense," I laughed. "You'll enjoy it." "'Enjoy!' Oh, Miss--Smith! Enjoyment and me looks as if we was going to be strangers," declared Million bitterly. "I don't see why you couldn't oblige a friend, and come in to keep the ball a-rollin', you that know the go of Society, and that!" "I'm sure it's not the go of Society to have in the lady's-maid to help amuse the visitors. Not in the drawing-room, at all events." "But if I ask you----" "If you ask me to do things that are 'not my place,' Miss Million," I said firmly, "I shall give you notice. I mean it." This awful threat had its effect. Million heaved one more gusty sigh, cast one more reproachful glance at her rebellious maid, and dropped the subject. Thank goodness! I shall miss this weird and unparalleled party, but I shall hear all about it at second-hand after that amazingly contrasted couple of young men has departed. It's ten minutes to four now.