Her niece had stopped a moment on the landing outside to fasten her boot lace.
Miss Henderson did not wear hoops. Also, the streets being sloppy, she had tucked up her plain, gray merino dress over a quilted black alpaca petticoat. Her boots were splashed, and her black silk bonnet was covered with a large gray barége veil, tied down over it to protect it from the dripping roofs. Judging merely by exterior, one would hardly take her at a glance, indeed, for a "fust-class" lady.
The directress--a busy woman, with only half a glance to spare for anyone--moved toward her.
"Take a seat, if you please. What kind of a place do you want?"
Aunt Faith turned full face upon her, with a look that was prepared to be overwhelming.
"I'm looking for a place, ma'am, where I can find a respectable girl."
Her firm, emphatic utterance was heard to the farthest end of the hall.
Faith Gartney came in at this moment, and walked up quietly to Miss Henderson's side. There was visibly a new impression made, and the tittering ceased.
"I beg pardon, ma'am. I see. But we have so many in, and I didn't fairly look. General housework?"
"Yes; general and particular--both. Whatever I set her to do."
The directress turned toward the throng of faces whose fire of eyes was now all concentrated on the unflinching countenance of Miss Henderson.
A stout, well-looking damsel, with an expression that seemed to say she answered to her name, but was nevertheless persuaded of the utter uselessness of the movement, half rose from her seat.
"You needn't call up that girl," said Aunt Faith, decidedly; "I don't want her."
Ellen Mahoney had giggled among the loudest.
"She knows what she _does_ want!" whispered a decent-appearing young woman to a girl at her side with an eager face looking out from a friz of short curly hair, "and that's more than half of 'em do."
"Country, did you say, ma'am? or city?" asked the directress once more of Miss Henderson.
"I didn't say. It's country, though--twenty miles out."
"I'll find the girl first, and settle that afterwards."
"Anybody to do general housework in the country, twenty miles out?"
The prevailing expression of the assemblage changed. There was a settling down into seats, and a resumption of knitting and needlework.