Lady Bell, Volume 1 by Sarah Tytler

The sound sleep of youth did much for Lady Bell. She awoke, comforted / and refreshed in her closet,-furnished, Spartan-like, with checked linen / and hard wood, the window looking across at the turrets crumbling down / before they had been all built, with yawning slits for their windows and / rotting boards between the different levels, which might have / accommodated a score of robbers as well as owls and cats.

She was sad, but no longer in despair; she even felt inquisitive as well / as hungry, and disposed to venture on a voyage of discovery in search of / her aunt's parlour and breakfast.

Sneyd, the butler, in his unencouraged essays at conversation the night / before, had made Lady Bell acquainted with the habits of the family. The / squire was never down in the morning till it was late, when he was at / home, and that was but seldom, as he attended all the races. Lady Bell / need not fear to stumble on her uncle, and be frozen to stone by his / distant greeting. Neither did Mrs. Die show face at an early hour, / according to Sneyd; she lay a-bed half the day always, the whole day / often.

Indeed it appeared as if Sneyd's caution against early rising, the / reverse of the rule which the old fine lady, Lady Lucie, had imposed, / was to be illustrated by the practice of the whole household, including / Sneyd himself. Lady Bell wandered doubtfully about the staircase-vast to / her after her grand-aunt's London lodging, and with its weather-stains / and cobwebs more conspicuous by broad daylight-and about the wide / corridors. She peeped into half-open doors of what seemed always empty / rooms. She was startled by the striking of the clock over the / entrance-door, and scared by the growling of a dog, but she did not meet / a living creature. The fact was that such servants as were astir were in / the stables and cow-house.

At last a stout, red-cheeked country girl, in the extremity of rusticity / to the town-bred eyes of Lady Bell, accustomed to a trim waiting-woman, / instead of to a girl in a jacket, woollen apron, heavy frilled cap, and / clamping clogs, stood arrested in the stranger's way.

The country girl bobbed curtseys, and stared with round eyes, which had / more admiration in them than the squire's eyes had been able to hold, at / the other girl,-lily-faced, in a black tabby gown, black gloves, black / silk stockings with clocks, the dress finished off by black shoes with / high heels, a white apron and neckerchief, and a little white cap of her / own poised on the top of the dark curls. She was taken altogether aback / when Lady Bell asked the direction of Mrs. Die's parlour.

Sukey speedily recovered herself, and showed Lady Bell into a low-roofed / room belonging to the older part of the house, which, like the squire's / room, was so far prepared for occupants, that it was matted, furnished / with rush-bottomed chairs, had a table laid for breakfast, and a fire, / lately kindled, smoking in the grate. But except that there were both / antique china and plate-alike so valuable that they were heirlooms-on / the breakfast-table, this was all that could be said for Mrs. Die's / parlour.

There was not a single article implying work, study, recreation, or / gentle accomplishments. There was not only none of the prints, / medallions, and cabinets of curiosities to which Lady Bell had been / accustomed as the approved ornaments of gentlewomen's parlours, there / was neither harpsichord nor spinet, tambour-frame, nor even wheel, nor / book,-French or English,-not so much as a cookery-book with recipes / written in a fine Italian hand, nor inkstand, nor bird's cage, nor / flower-pot.

The high square windows, to look from which compelled Lady Bell to stand / on her tiptoes, commanded what had once been a garden-court, but it was / now a veritable wilderness of rank vegetation and rotting weeds.

Lady Bell was too thankful to turn from the prospect to await an / approaching footstep, and to find that it belonged to a / respectable-looking middle-aged woman, Lady Bell thought a superior / upper servant, possibly the wife of Sneyd the butler, undoubtedly the / housekeeper in her own person, as she carried a bunch of keys.

The new-comer's well-preserved quilted gown was protected from soil and / stain by an ample apron and cuffs. Her head in its morning cap was / farther fenced from the keenness of the air, and from draughts by a hood / hanging round her shoulders. "Good morning to you, Lady Bell; you / arrived after supper, I hear, and you have not let the grass grow on / your steps this morning. But your bread and milk is not ready yet; you / must wait till your betters be served. I have Mrs. Die's chocolate to / send up."

Lady Bell was offended by this speech. It was not exactly unfriendly, / but it was brusque, with more than a suspicion of carping in the tone, / and it was spoken with much of the coolness and freedom of an equal.

Lady Bell was not naturally proud and passionate. Mr. Sneyd had misread / the girl's heart, ready to burst at her cold reception. She had been / docile and affectionate to Lady Lucie-a strict disciplinarian, like most / old ladies of her régime.

Lady Bell had no more than the generous spirit which every true and / uncrushed young nature asserts. But she had been brought up rigidly in / this as in some other articles of faith, that it was her duty as a young / lady of quality in the state of life to which she was called, both for / her own sake and that of her neighbours, to keep servants in their / proper place, and, while behaving to them with consideration, and if / possible with affability, to be quick to check in them all encroachment / and usurpation.

When young ladies of fourteen adhere to precedents, they are not apt to / make exceptions to the rule, and it is a very wonderful young lady who / does not blunder even in carrying out instructions.