Seven o'clock struck; and the signs of domestic life began to show
themselves in more rapid succession.
The housemaid came down--tall and slim, with the state of the spring
temperature written redly on her nose. The lady's-maid followed--young,
smart, plump, and sleepy. The kitchen-maid came next--afflicted with
the face-ache, and making no secret of her sufferings. Last of all, the
footman appeared, yawning disconsolately; the living picture of a man
who felt that he had been defrauded of his fair night's rest.
The conversation of the servants, when they assembled before the slowly
lighting kitchen fire, referred to a recent family event, and turned at
starting on this question: Had Thomas, the footman, seen anything of
the concert at Clifton, at which his master and the two young ladies had
been present on the previous night? Yes; Thomas had heard the concert;
he had been paid for to go in at the back; it was a loud concert; it
was a hot concert; it was described at the top of the bills as Grand;
whether it was worth traveling sixteen miles to hear by railway,
with the additional hardship of going back nineteen miles by road, at
half-past one in the morning--was a question which he would leave his
master and the young ladies to decide; his own opinion, in the meantime,
being unhesitatingly, No.
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