and scalding the foot of Mrs. Hamilton, who was in the rear, and who,
having waited an hour for dinner, had descended to the kitchen to know
why it was not forthcoming, saying that Polly had never been so behind
the time.

The other one, on being asked if she understood chamber work, had
replied, "Indade, and it's been my business all my life." She was
accordingly sent to make the beds and empty the slop. Thinking it an
easy way to dispose of the latter, she had thrown it from the window,
deluging the head and shoulders of her mistress who was bending down
to examine a rose bush which had been recently set out. Lenora was in
ecstasies, and when at noon her mother received a sprinkling of red
hot soup, she gravely asked her "which she relished most, cold or warm
baths!"




CHAPTER XIII.

RETRIBUTION.


Two years have passed away, and again we open the scene at the
homestead, which had not proved an altogether pleasant home to Mrs.
Hamilton. There was around her everything to make her happy, but she
was far from being so. One by one her servants, with whom she was very
unpopular, had left her, until there now remained but one. The
villagers, too, shunned her, and she was wholly dependent for society
upon Lenora, who, as usual, provoked and tormented her.