finery, with a white woollen shawl spread over it, apparently with
the purpose of smothering any living thing there might chance to be
beneath, as, in Mrs. Lake's experienced eyes, could be nothing less
than a baby of the most genteel order.

The manners of the nurse were most genteel also, and might have
quite overpowered Mrs. Lake, but that the windmiller's wife had in
her youth been in good service herself, and, though an early
marriage had prevented her from rising beyond the post of nursemaid,
she was fairly familiar with the etiquette of the nursery and of the
servants' hall.

"Good morning, ma'am," said the nurse, who no sooner ceased to walk
than she began a kind of diagonal movement without progression, in
which one heel clacked, and all her petticoats swung, and the baby
who, head downwards, was snorting with gaping mouth under the
woollen coverlet, was supposed to be soothed. "Good morning, ma'am.
You'll excuse my intruding" -

"Not at all, mum," said Mrs. Lake. By which she did not mean to
reject the excuse, but to disclaim the intrusion.

When the nurse was not speaking, she kept time to her own rocking by
a peculiar click of her tongue against the roof of her mouth; and
indeed it sometimes mingled, almost confusingly, with her
conversation. "You're very obliging, ma'am, I'm sure," said she,
and, persuaded by Mrs. Lake, she took a seat. "You'll excuse me for
asking a singular question, ma'am, but WAS YOUR HUSBAND'S FATHER AND
GRANDFATHER BOTH MILLERS?"