Attwood's attraction to _me._ You understand, so far?"
Yes--Louisa understood. Magdalen went on. "Thanks to Mrs. Attwood and
Mrs. Attwood's daughter," she said, "I know some curious particulars
already of the household at St. Crux. Servants' tongues and servants'
letters--as I need not tell _you_--are oftener occupied with their
masters and mistresses than their masters and mistresses suppose.
The only mistress at St. Crux is the housekeeper. But there is a
master--Admiral Bartram. He appears to be a strange old man, whose
whims and fancies amuse his servants as well as his friends. One of his
fancies (the only one we need trouble ourselves to notice) is, that he
had men enough about him when he was living at sea, and that now he is
living on shore, he will be waited on by women-servants alone. The one
man in the house is an old sailor, who has been all his life with his
master--he is a kind of pensioner at St. Crux, and has little or nothing
to do with the housework. The other servants, indoors, are all women;
and instead of a footman to wait on him at dinner, the admiral has a
parlor-maid. The parlor-maid now at St. Crux is engaged to be married,
and as soon as her master can suit himself she is going away.
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