"I'm only a poor girl, but I wouldn't marry the
best man alive without a new gown to my back. Look here! look at this
dowdy brown thing here. Alpaca! You're not going to pack this Alpaca
thing, are you? Why, it's hardly fit for a servant! I don't know that
I'd take a gift of it if it was offered me. It would do for me if I took
it up in the skirt, and let it out in the waist--and it wouldn't look so
bad with a bit of bright trimming, would it?"
"Let that dress alone, if you please," said Louisa, as quietly as ever.
"What did you say?" inquired the other, doubting whether her ears had
not deceived her.
"I said, let that dress alone. It belongs to my mistress, and I have my
mistress's orders to pack up everything in the room. You are not helping
me by coming here--you are very much in my way."
"Well!" said the house-servant, "you may be London bred, as they say.
But if these are your London manners, give me Suffolk!" She opened the
door with an angry snatch at the handle, shut it violently, opened it
again, and looked in. "Give me Suffolk!" said the house-servant, with a
parting nod of her head to point the edge of her sarcasm.
Louisa proceeded impenetrably with her packing up.
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