chatterin' hard enough when I come up! I'm thinkin' ye must have guilty consciences!" When she had disappeared, Corinne spoke up: 33 33 "You girls all seem rather afraid of your maid, if you'll pardon my remarking it! But I think she seems very good-hearted." "Why, it's this way," replied Bess. "You see, Sarah's more than just a maid or a servant. She runs the whole house, really, because Mother's away so much and just trusts her with everything. She's awfully good to us children and would do almost anything for us. But she's very, very particular about her work and her way of arranging things, and she won't be interfered with the least bit. Why, Mother herself wouldn't think of changing any of Sarah's arrangements, even if she didn't like them, because Sarah wouldn't stand for it, and we couldn't do without her. Jess and I tease her a lot, and she lets us have anything we want to eat; but we mustn't on any account interfere with her in other ways, or there'd be trouble!" Bess did not enlighten Corinne, however, as to the real reason for their consideration of Sarah. It was because of an episode that had happened when she and her twin sister were34 several years younger. They had rebelled one fine day at what they considered Sarah's tyranny, and for twelve long hours had led her a life of excitement and angry remonstrance. And then that night, just as their mother arrived home, behold Sarah descending the stairs, dressed for departure, a huge carpetbag in each hand. A stormy and tearful scene ensued in which Sarah finally relented at the urgent importunities of the distracted Mrs. Bronson. But she promised to remain only on condition that the twins should obey her implicitly from that moment. 34 And in the privacy of their bedroom that night Mrs. Bronson had warned the nine-year-old rebels that, should such a scene ever occur again, she would give up their home, put Margaret in a sanatorium and the twins in the strictest boarding-school she could find, and herself find a place to live nearer to her business. The threat had its lasting effect, and nothing of the kind had ever happened since. But this was the true reason why the family lived in wholesome awe of Sarah. And, as
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