The Old House in the City by Agnes Giberne

NOT very far from the aged mansion in Ansty Court, where Ailie Carter's home had been so long, another old-fashioned house stood, in another old-fashioned street-narrow, but clean, fresh, and airy. This, too, was a large building, with numberless small windows, but each was furnished with white curtains or blinds, and on the lower window-ledges were long wooden boxes, filled with summer flowers.

All up the wide stairs lay Brussels carpeting, and the oil-cloth in the hall, of alternate dark-brown and red diamonds, had a pleasant effect. At about six o'clock Josie stood there, waiting for the sound of the tea-bell, which was usually rung to summon her from the play-room. She whiled away the time by stepping slowly from one diamond-shape to another, with all possible care to avoid treading on the light brown ground intervening. With a grave face, and hands folded loosely together, she went through her self-appointed exercise, pacing cautiously across the hall and back again, while her tiny terrier pattered daintily in her rear. Evidently Snap thought his mistress must be about some very important occupation, by the exceeding pains he took not to hinder her.