"Mistress! You _dashed_ fool," was the response, "what the
_dash_ do I know about mistresses? I'll make a beginning with you,
you sleek, fat powder-monkey, with your shiny beaver and stuffed
calves!"

Edith heard all this, and her amazement was so great that it drove away
all fatigue. Her heart beat high and her spirit rose at this insult.
Opening the carriage door, she sprang out, and, walking up to the gate,
she confronted the porter as a goddess might confront a satyr. The calm,
cold gaze which she gave his was one which the brute could not
encounter. He could face any one of his own order; but the eye that now
rested on him gave him pain, and his glance fell sulkily before that of
his mistress.

"I am your mistress--Miss Dalton," said Edith. "Open that gate
immediately."

"I don't know any thing about mistresses," said the fellow. "My orders
are not to open them gates to nobody."

At this rebuff Edith was for a moment perplexed, but soon rallied. She
reflected that this man was a servant under orders, and that it would be
useless to talk to him. She must see the principal.

"Who gave those orders?" she asked.

"Mr. Wiggins," said the man, gruffly.

"Is that man here now?" asked Edith.