felt as if she would like to make a bonfire of them all!

Every time she went into her kitchen she also
longed to tear down, with violent hands, the borders
of fine crochet work, the _Kante,_ with which each
wooden shelf was edged, and of which she had been
almost as proud as had been Anna. This crochet
work seemed to haunt her, for wherever it could be
utilised, Anna, during those long years of willing service,
had sewn it proudly on, in narrow edgings and
in broad bands.

Not only were all Mrs. Otway's and Rose's under-
clothing trimmed with it, but it served as insertion
for curtains, ran along the valance of each bed, and
edged each pillow and cushion. Anna had worked
miles of it since she first came to the Trellis House,
for there were balls of crochet work rolled up in all
her drawers, and when she was not occupied in doing
some form of housework she was either knitting or
crocheting. The old German woman never stirred
without her little bag, itself gaily embroidered, to
hold her _Hand_Arbeit;_ and very heartily, as Mrs.
Otway knew well, did she despise the average English-
woman for being able to talk without a crochet-hook
or a pair of knitting-needles in her hands.

Something -- not much, but just a little -- of what
her mistress was feeling with regard to Major Guthrie
gradually reached Anna's perceptions, and made her
feel at once uncomfortable, scornful, and angry.

Anna felt the deepest sympathy for her darling
nursling, Miss Rose; for it was natural, warming-to-the-heart,
that a young girl should feel miserable about
a young man. In fact, Rose's lack of interest in marriage
and in the domesticities had disturbed and puz-

[[202]]

p201 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p202w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p203

v?