search of knowledge for her pupils.
The last new maid, who has never seen the young gentleman Miss Rosa is engaged to, and who is making his acquaintance between the hinges of the open door, left open for the purpose, stumbles guiltily down the kitchen stairs, as a charming little apparition with its face concealed by a little silk apron thrown over its head, glides into the parlour.
“O! it is so ridiculous!” says the apparition, stopping and shrinking. “Don’t, Eddy!”
“Don’t what, Rosa?”
“Don’t come any nearer, please. It is so absurd.”
“What is absurd, Rosa?”
“The whole thing is. It is so absurd to be an engaged orphan; and it is so absurd to have the girls and the servants scuttling about after one, like mice in the wainscot; and it is so absurd to be called upon!”