The conventional graduations in the outward expression of grief, which lead from black clothing to gray, formed no part of this afflicted lady's system of mourning. She laid her best blue walking dress and her new bonnet to match on the bed, and admired them to her heart's content. Her discarded garments were left on the floor. "Thank Heaven, I've done with you!" she said--and kicked her rusty mourning out of the way as she advanced to the fireplace to ring the bell.
"Where is my little boy?" she asked, when the landlady entered the room.
"He's down with me in the kitchen, ma'am; I'm teaching him to make a plum cake for himself. He's so happy! I hope you don't want him just now?"
"Not the least in the world. I want you to take care of him while I am away. By-the-by, where's Syd?"
The elder child (the girl) had been christened Sydney, in compliment to one of her father's female relatives. The name was not liked by her mother--who had shortened it to Syd, by way of leaving as little of it as possible. With a look at Mrs.
Westerfield which expressed ill-concealed aversion, the landlady answered: "She's up in the lumber-room, poor child. She says you sent her there to be out of the way."
"Ah, to be sure, I did."
"There's no fireplace in the garret, ma'am. I'm afraid the little girl must be cold and lonely."
It was useless to plead for Syd--Mrs. Westerfield was not listening. Her attention was absorbed by her own plump and pretty hands. She took a tiny file from the dressing-table, and put a few finishing touches to her nails. "Send me some hot water," she said; "I want to dress."
The servant girl who carried the hot water upstairs was new to the ways of the house. After having waited on Mrs. Westerfield, she had been instructed by the kind-hearted landlady to go on to the top floor. "You will find a pretty little girl in the garret, all by herself. Say you are to bring her down to my room, as soon as her mamma has gone out."
Mrs. Westerfield's habitual neglect of her eldest child was known to every person in the house. Even the new servant had heard of it. Interested by what she saw, on opening the garret door, she stopped on the threshold and looked in.