CHAPTER VII.
WILLING SERVICE.
At this unexpected solution of her great problem, Mrs. Lennox recovered herself quickly, and exclaimed:
"Oh, my dears, if you only would! But do you really mean it? Do they?" and she looked at Aunt Molly for confirmation of an offer which seemed too good to be true.
"I think they do," said Aunt Molly, smiling, "and I can assure you, dear Mrs. Lennox, that whatever these young ladies undertake will be well and thoroughly done."
"How can we do it?" said Nan. "Do you mean for the English ladies to think we 're really servants?"
"Of course they must," cried Millicent, who had waked up to the glorious possibilities of the situation. "Unless it's a real masquerade, it 'll be no fun at all. But where can we get the right kind of caps and aprons?"
Aunt Molly volunteered to obtain them that very afternoon, and Mrs. Lennox, seeing that these strange girls were really in earnest, accepted the blessing Heaven had so unexpectedly sent her, and at once began to make the most of it.
"Which of you are the best cooks?" she inquired, with the air of a general marshaling his forces, but such a capable and straightforward general that no offense could possibly be felt.
"Hester and Marjorie," was the immediate reply of the other six.
"Very well," said Mrs. Lennox; "Hester shall be head cook, since you named her first, and Marjorie, assistant."
Then Jessie and Betty were selected as being the deftest waitresses, and Millicent and Helen were declared ideal lady's-maids.
Helen preferred to be Mrs. Lennox's own maid, so Millicent was allotted to the English visitors.
All agreed that Marguerite would make the most picturesque parlor-maid; and as no other post could be thought of, Nan said she would be private secretary and librarian. Mrs. Lennox entered heartily into the scheme, and agreed with Millicent that if the thing were done at all, it must be done completely and with most careful attention to the minutest details.
"Could you submit to be spoken to as menials, as you might be?" said Mrs. Lennox. "You would have to be modest and deferential, address me as 'madam,' and both the visitors as 'your ladyship.’"
But all this only made it seem more of a lark, and after copious directions Mrs. Lennox went home, the eight girls promising to appear ready for duty the next afternoon at two.
That night Aunt Molly returned from the city, bringing wonderful paraphernalia.
The waitresses were to wear white—piqué skirts and linen shirt-waists; their caps were of the conventional shape, and their aprons were voluminous indeed, with crossed straps and broad wings, which Uncle Ned declared could not be surpassed for acreage in all London.
The cooks were to wear white, too—linen blouses with rolled-up sleeves, and real cooks' caps.
The lady's-maids wore pink and blue gingham respectively, with aprons befrilled and beflounced, and most fetching little caps with ribbon bows.
But Marguerite was pronounced the "gem of the collection."
In her plain black dress, with a white apron of thin lawn, trimmed with a wide accordion-plaited ruffle, and tied back with a most enormous bow, a hand in each pocket of her apron, she looked like the coquettish parlor-maid one sees on the stage or in the comic papers; a bewitching little cap was jauntily perched on her fluffy golden hair, and her high-heeled slippers clicked gaily as she tripped around.
At two o'clock precisely, on the day of the performance, the eight presented themselves at Mrs. Lennox's door, and were admitted by that lady herself.
"Well, you are a proper-looking lot!" she exclaimed as the girls filed in, "and you 've taken a weight off my mind, I can tell you. When I woke this morning I thought it was all a dream,—your coming, I mean,—and I have not really felt sure of you until I saw you approaching. Goodness gracious, Miss Marguerite, I think her ladyship will open her eyes at my parlor-maid! Of course I shall call you all by your first names—they 're rather unusual for servants, some of them, but I 'll explain that American servants are often elaborately dubbed."
Then the girls flew to their respective places, and work began in earnest.
Hester and Marjorie were a bit appalled at the overflowing condition of Mrs. Lennox's larder; but Nan and Millicent, having nothing to do, came to their assistance, and a really fine dinner was soon in course of preparation.
Jessie and Betty set the table, while Marguerite gathered flowers and decorated the various rooms until they were fragrant bowers of beauty. Mrs. Lennox's house was a large and luxurious mansion, exquisitely appointed and with elegant furnishings. Indeed, so delighted was Marguerite with her surroundings, and with the mirrored representations of her pretty self, that she almost forgot to do her work.
"Is n't it fun?" said Jessie, as she passed the parlor door with a huge silver-basket which Mrs. Lennox had just intrusted to her. "It's a delight to set a table with such lovely things."
"How are the cooks?" said Marguerite, leaving off pirouetting before the pier-glass and coming out to chum with the others.
But her entrance to the kitchen was not welcomed. "Go away," cried Marjorie. "Fly away, you butterfly. We 're really busy, and much flustered besides."
"You seem to be frying everything," commented Marguerite, teasingly; "there is a sound as of sizzling grease."
"The crackling of grease saved Rome," called out Hester, and Marguerite went back giggling.
But at last everything was in readiness, and not any too soon either, for the door-bell rang a resounding peal.
Hurriedly the servants confabbed as to whose place it was to go to the door. In the absence of a man-servant they concluded it was a waitress's place; but Marguerite settled the question by remarking that no matter whose place it was, she would go anyhow.
Nan was ensconced in the library, Helen was with Mrs. Lennox in her boudoir, and Millicent waiting in the guests' apartments; but the eyes of the other four were peering cautiously from behind doors and portières as the pretty and audacious parlor-maid flung open the front door with an air that would have done credit to a Lord Chamberlain.
"Mrs. Lennox?" murmured the grand lady visitor, somewhat taken aback at the lovely vision which smilingly confronted her.
"Yes, your ladyships," said Marguerite's pretty voice. "Will your ladyships enter?"
She curtsied low, then ushered the visitors into the drawing-room, and presented her silver tray for cards.
"Lady Pendered and Lady Lucy Pendered," said the elder guest, in dignified tones; and Marguerite reddened, and whipped her tray behind her, wondering if she had made a mistake.
She thought she caught the echo of a giggling retreat to the kitchen, but determined to play her part as well as she could. She tripped upstairs and announced the guests to Mrs. Lennox.
"I will go down at once," said that lady. "Helen, my shawl."
"Yes, madam," said Helen, gracefully offering the dainty trifle of a shawl; and then Mrs. Lennox sailed downstairs, and the two girls dropped to the floor and rocked back and forth in silent paroxysms of mirth.
Then a bell summoned Helen and Millicent, and, resolutely assuming a prim demeanor, they went downstairs side by side, and presented themselves for orders.
Although a woman of age and experience, Lady Pendered had never seen just such lady's-maids as these before, and she raised her lorgnon and stared at them with perhaps pardonable curiosity.
"Millicent, attend these ladies," said Mrs. Lennox, easily. "I trust she will make you comfortable, Lady Pendered. Helen is my own maid, but I beg you will command her, Lady Lucy."
Lady Lucy Pendered was a pale, willowy girl of perhaps eighteen or twenty, with light-blue eyes and straw-colored hair, which was most exceedingly frizzed. Millicent and Helen promptly disliked her, but with demure deference they relieved the distinguished visitors of their wraps and hand-bags and preceded them upstairs. Arrived at their rooms, Lady Pendered dismissed Helen, declaring that Mrs. Lennox must need her, and stating that she and her daughter could easily manage with one maid. Which Millicent discovered to mean that Lady Lucy would monopolize her services, and Lady Pendered would shift for herself.
As a beginning, Lady Lucy reclined languidly on a couch and thrust out her foot, which was heavily shod after the most exaggerated English fashion. For a moment Millicent felt annoyed and her face flushed deep red; then, remembering it was a game, she threw herself into it in her own whole-souled way, and dropping on her knees before the pale-haired aristocrat, she removed her heavy boots, brought her slippers and put them on for her, and then proceeded to assist her through the intricacies of a very elaborate toilet.
Millicent afterward confessed to Marjorie that she did want to burn the Lady Lucy's noble forehead when she frizzed that ridiculous nest on top of her head; but at the time she was a most exemplary lady's-maid—deft, patient, and willing.
Meanwhile Helen was assisting Mrs. Lennox to don her grandest attire in honor of her titled guests; and not having to masquerade just then, Helen and the eccentric old lady were becoming fast friends.