'I'm in no hurry,' Mrs. Mudge replied, 'and you don't seem to be in
any. Thank you; this is not the bit I want; you needn't trouble; I
can order a paper myself.' The next day there was a Standard for
Mrs. Mudge, who with some malice immediately offered it to Mr.
Goacher. Mrs. Poulter glared at him, and after a little hesitation
he expressed his obligation but preferred to wait, as he had a
letter to write which must be dispatched immediately. Mrs. Poulter
never forgot Mrs. Mudge's spite, as she called it; the Standard
reminded her of it daily.

Mr. Goacher agreed with Mrs. Poulter that, for the reasons she gave,
it would be desirable to remove from Russell House. He also felt
that, as a clergyman, he would do wisely in leaving, for he could
not ascribe the disappearance of 'the domestic' to anything but a
consciousness of guilt.

Miss Taggart considered that Mrs. Mudge's conduct was due to
defective training. As to Helen, Miss Taggart added that 'you never
feel yourself secure against moral delinquency in the classes from
which servants are drawn. They have no basis.'

'I understand,' said Mrs. Poulter, 'that Helen is a Dissenter.'

Miss Taggart, as the reader has been told, was not particularly fond
of Mrs. Poulter and Mr. Goacher, but to stay with Mrs. Mudge and
Miss Everard was impossible. She had also once or twice received a
hint from Miss Toller that perhaps she had better suit herself
elsewhere, as the minute attention she demanded to her little needs,
of which there were many, was trying both to mistress and servant.