glass as she tied her bonnet. 'Goodness gracious me! now do you really
live in the city?'

'Is it so very unusual for anybody to live there?' asked Kate, half
smiling.

'I couldn't have believed it possible that any young woman could have
lived there, under any circumstances whatever, for three days together,'
replied Miss Knag.

'Reduced--I should say poor people,' answered Kate, correcting herself
hastily, for she was afraid of appearing proud, 'must live where they
can.'

'Ah! very true, so they must; very proper indeed!' rejoined Miss Knag
with that sort of half-sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight
nods of the head, is pity's small change in general society; 'and that's
what I very often tell my brother, when our servants go away ill, one
after another, and he thinks the back-kitchen's rather too damp for
'em to sleep in. These sort of people, I tell him, are glad to sleep
anywhere! Heaven suits the back to the burden. What a nice thing it is
to think that it should be so, isn't it?'

'Very,' replied Kate.

'I'll walk with you part of the way, my dear,' said Miss Knag, 'for
you must go very near our house; and as it's quite dark, and our last
servant went to the hospital a week ago, with St Anthony's fire in her
face, I shall be glad of your company.'