“Yes, Miss Neily.”  Lizzie hesitated, obviously with some weighty news on her mind which she wished to impart.  Finally she took the plunge.  “I might have told Miss Dale she could have been lookin’ for a cook as well—­and a housemaid—­” she muttered at last, “but they hadn’t spoken to me then.”

Miss Cornelia sat bolt upright in bed.  “A cook—­and a housemaid?  But we have a cook and a housemaid, Lizzie!  You don’t mean to tell me—­”

Lizzie nodded her head.  “Yes’m.  They’re leaving.  Both of ’em.  Today.”

“But good heav—­ Lizzie, why on earth didn’t you tell me before?”

Lizzie spoke soothingly, all the blarney of Kerry in her voice.  “Now, Miss Neily, as if I’d wake you first thing in the morning with bad news like that!  And thinks I, well, maybe ’tis all for the best after all—­for when Miss Neily hears they’re leavin’—­ and her so particular—­maybe she’ll go back to the city for just a little and leave this house to its haunts and its bats and—­”

“Go back to the city?  I shall do nothing of the sort.  I rented this house to live in and live in it I will, with servants or without them.  You should have told me at once, Lizzie.  I’m really very much annoyed with you because you didn’t.  I shall get up immediately—­I want to give those two a piece of my mind.  Is Billy leaving too?”

“Not that I know of—­the heathern Japanese!” said Lizzie sorrowfully.  “And yet he’d be better riddance than cook or housemaid.”

“Now, Lizzie, how many times have I told you that you must conquer your prejudices?  Billy is an excellent butler—­he’d been with Mr. Fleming ten years and has the very highest recommendations.  I am very glad that he is staying, if he is.  With you to help him, we shall do very well until I can get other servants.”  Miss Cornelia had risen now and Lizzie was helping her with the intricacies of her toilet.  “But it’s too annoying,” she went on, in the pauses of Lizzie’s deft ministrations.  “What did they say to you, Lizzie—­did they give any reason?  It isn’t as if they were new to the country like you.  They’d been with Mr. Fleming for some time, though not as long as Billy.”

“Oh, yes, Miss Neily—­they had reasons you could choke a goat with,” said Lizzie viciously as she arranged Miss Cornelia’s transformation.  “Cook was the first of them—­she was up late—­I think they’d been talking it over together.  She comes into the kitchen with her hat on and her bag in her hand.  ‘Good morning,’ says I, pleasant enough, ‘you’ve got your hat on,’ says I.  ‘I’m leaving,’ says she.  ’Leaving, are you?’ says I.  ‘Leaving,’ says she.  ‘My sister has twins,’ says she.  ‘I just got word—­I must go to her right away.’  ‘What?’ says I, all struck in a heap.  ‘Twins,’ says she, ’you’ve heard of such things as twins.’  ‘That I have,’ says I, ’and I know a lie on a face when I see it, too.’”

“Lizzie!”