'I think a servant ought to come to me. Caroline always does,' said
the only daughter with dignity.
'She can't, for she is putting Primrose to bed. Oh, it's so delicious
to see Prim in her bath,' said Mysie, with a little skip. 'Make haste,
or we shall miss her, the darling.'
Dolores did not feel pressed to behold the spectacle, and not being in
the habit of dressing without assistance, she was tardy, and Mysie
fidgeted about and nearly distracted her. Thus, when she reached the
nursery, Primrose was already in her little white bed-gown, and was
being incited by Valetta to caper about on her cot, like a little
acrobat, as her sisters said, while Mrs. Halfpenny declared that 'they
were making the child that rampageous, she should not get her to sleep
till midnight.'
They would have been turned out much sooner, and Primrose hushed into
silence, if nurse's soul had not been horrified by the state of
Dolores' hair and the general set of her garments.
'My certie!' she exclaimed--a dreadful exclamation in the eyes of the
family, who knew it implied that in all her experience Mrs. Halfpenny
had never known the like! And taking Dolores by the hand, she led the
wrathful and indignant girl back into her bedroom, untied and tied,
unbuttoned and buttoned, brushed and combed in spite of the second bell
ringing, the general scamper, and the sudden apparition of Mysie and
Val, whom she bade run away and tell her leddyship that 'Miss Mohoone
should come as soon as she was sorted, but she ought to come up early
to have her hair looked to, for 'twas shame to see how thae fine London
servants sorted a motherless bairn.
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