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The proceedings in the house had doubtless upset all the women-servants more or less; but none of them had gone clean out of their natural characters, as Rosanna, to all appearance, had now gone out of hers. I found Mr. Franklin writing at the library-table. He asked for a conveyance to the railway station the moment I entered the room.

The voyage was long: they followed the Lake of Onega, the Lake of Ladoga and the river Neva. Sometimes poor people got a lift in the boat: toward the end of the voyage they took aboard a number of women-servants returning to their situations in town from a visit to their country homes. Among them was an elderly woman going to see her daughter, who was a washerwoman at St. Petersburg.

It is unnecessary to say that the women-servants selected by Nanon were "perfect treasures." Mademoiselle Grandet thus had four servants, whose devotion was unbounded. The farmers perceived no change after Monsieur Grandet's death; the usages and customs he had sternly established were scrupulously carried out by Monsieur and Madame Cornoiller.

In imitation of this most excellent law, I would have such servants, who should continue many years in one service, meet with singular esteem and reward. The apparel of our women-servants should be next regulated, that we may know the mistress from the maid.

Still the cry of "Grisly Grisell," picked up as if by instinct or by some echo from the rear of the escort, rang in her ears in the angry fretful voice of the poor little creature towards whom her heart was yearning. Even the two women-servants there were, no more looked at her askance, as they took her to a seat in the hall, and consulted where my lady would have her bestowed.

When the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her nurse bending over her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse's shoulder, and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper's. The room was full of women-servants; and the gentlemen-at-arms, with a long column of servants behind them, were peeping, or trying to peep in at the door of the nursery.

"God has been good to us. We are in his hands. If we know that, we know enough." As she spoke there was a loud ring at the doorbell. The women-servants crowded into the bedroom in alarm. Strong in numbers, and encouraged by Natalie who roused herself and led the way they confronted the risk of opening the window and of venturing out on the balcony which extended along that side of the house.

He put the question to me. I answered that the women-servants had crowded into the room on the previous morning, and that some of their petticoats had done the mischief, "Superintendent Seegrave ordered them out, sir," I added, "before they did any more harm." "Right!" says Mr. Superintendent in his military way. "I ordered them out. The petticoats did it, Sergeant the petticoats did it."

In the seats immediately below her were an array of women-servants, declining from the high dignities of Mrs. Reynolds the housekeeper, the faithful Clara, and her own lanky and loyal north-country woman Faulstich, to a very youthful scullery maid, sitting just without the altar rails at the end of the long row.

This statement was not noticed by the bench. The prisoners were both sentenced to death. On my return to the farm, I did not see Naomi. Miss Meadowcroft informed her of the result of the trial. Half an hour later, one of the women-servants handed to me an envelope bearing my name on it in Naomi's handwriting.