all her movements, smiled covertly at her affectations, envied her
accomplishments, and practised certain little elegancies that struck
her fancy.

Mr. Stuart would have become apoplectic with indignation if he had
known that this too intelligent table-girl often contrasted her
master with his guests, and dared to think him wanting in good
breeding when he boasted of his money, flattered a great man, or
laid plans to lure some lion into his house. When he lost his
temper, she always wanted to laugh, he bounced and bumbled about so
like an angry blue-bottle fly; and when he got himself up
elaborately for a party, this disrespectful hussy confided to Hepsey
her opinion that "master was a fat dandy, with nothing to be vain of
but his clothes,"--a sacrilegious remark which would have caused her
to be summarily ejected from the house if it had reached the august
ears of master or mistress.

"My father was a gentleman; and I shall never forget it, though I do
go out to service. I've got no rich friends to help me up, but,
sooner or later, I mean to find a place among cultivated people; and
while I'm working and waiting, I can be fitting myself to fill that
place like a gentlewoman, as I am."

With this ambition in her mind, Christie took notes of all that went
on in the polite world, of which she got frequent glimpses while
"living out." Mrs. Stuart received one evening of each week, and on
these occasions Christie, with an extra frill on her white apron,
served the company, and enjoyed herself more than they did, if the
truth had been known.