She then gave her the same directions she had formerly given Rosamond—­with this difference, that she told her to go into the picture-hall when she pleased, showing her the entrance, against which the clock no longer stood—­and went away, closing the door behind her.

VIII.

As soon as she was left alone, Agnes set to work tidying and dusting the cottage, made up the fire, watered the bed, and cleaned the inside of the windows:  the wise woman herself always kept the outside of them clean.  When she had done, she found her dinner—­of the same sort she was used to at home, but better—­in the hole of the wall.  When she had eaten it, she went to look at the pictures.

By this time her old disposition had begun to rouse again.  She had been doing her duty, and had in consequence begun again to think herself Somebody.  However strange it may well seem, to do one’s duty will make any one conceited who only does it sometimes.  Those who do it always would as soon think of being conceited of eating their dinner as of doing their duty.  What honest boy would pride himself on not picking pockets?  A thief who was trying to reform would.  To be conceited of doing one’s duty is then a sign of how little one does it, and how little one sees what a contemptible thing it is not to do it.  Could any but a low creature be conceited of not being contemptible?  Until our duty becomes to us common as breathing, we are poor creatures.

So Agnes began to stroke herself once more, forgetting her late self-stroking companion, and never reflecting that she was now doing what she had then abhorred.  And in this mood she went into the picture-gallery.

The first picture she saw represented a square in a great city, one side of which was occupied by a splendid marble palace, with great flights of broad steps leading up to the door.  Between it and the square was a marble-paved court, with gates of brass, at which stood sentries in gorgeous uniforms, and to which was affixed the following proclamation in letters of gold, large enough for Agnes to read:—­

“By the will of the King, from this time until further notice, every stray child found in the realm shall be brought without a moment’s delay to the palace.  Whoever shall be found having done otherwise shall straightway lose his head by the hand of the public executioner.”

Agnes’s heart beat loud, and her face flushed.

“Can there be such a city in the world?” she said to herself.  “If I only knew where it was, I should set out for it at once.  There would be the place for a clever girl like me!”

Her eyes fell on the picture which had so enticed Rosamond.  It was the very country where her father fed his flocks.  Just round the shoulder of the hill was the cottage where her parents lived, where she was born and whence she had been carried by the beggar-woman.