Nell of Shorne Mills

Lady Wolfer led Nell to her ladyship's own room. It was as unlike a

boudoir as it well could be; for the furniture was of the simplest kind,

and in place of the elegant trifles with which the fair sex usually

delight to surround themselves, the tables, the couch, and even the

chairs were littered with solid-looking volumes, blue books, pamphlets,

and sheets of manuscript paper.

There was a piano, it is true; but its top was loaded with handbills and

posters announcing meetings, and the dust lay thick on its lid. The

writing table was better suited to an office than a lady's "own room,"

and it was strewn with the prevailing litter.

Lady Wolfer cleared a chair by sweeping the books from it, and gently

pushed Nell into it.

"Now, you sit down for a moment while I ring for a maid to take you to

your room. Heaven only knows where it is, or in what condition you will

find it! You see, I quite forgot you were coming. Candid, isn't it? But

I'm always candid, and I begin at once with you. By the way, oughtn't

you to have come earlier--or later?"

Nell explained that she had had her breakfast at the station, and spent

an hour in the waiting room, so as not to present herself too early.

"How thoughtful of you!" said Lady Wolfer. "You don't look--you look so

young and--girlish."

"I'm not very old," remarked Nell, with a smile. "Perhaps I'm not old

enough to fill the position."

"Oh, for goodness' sake, don't throw a doubt upon your staying!" said

her ladyship quickly. "I'm so tired of old, or what I call old, people,

and I am sure you will do beautifully. For, though you are so young, you

look as if you could manage; and that is what I can't do--I mean manage

a house. I can talk--I can talk the hind leg off a donkey, as Archie

says"--she stopped, looking slightly embarrassed for a moment, and Nell

supposed that her ladyship alluded to Lord Wolfer--"but when it comes to

details, fortunately there is always somebody else."

While she had been speaking, Lady Wolfer had taken off her hat and

jacket, and flung them onto the book-and-paper-strewn couch.

"I'm just come in from a breakfast meeting to attend this one at home,"

she explained. "And I've got to go out again directly to a

committee--the Employment of Women Bureau. Have you ever heard of it?"

Nell shook her head.