this unexpected solution of her great problem, Mrs. Lennox recovered herself quickly, and exclaimed:
"Oh, my dears, if you only would! But do you really mean it? Do they?" and she looked at Aunt Molly for confirmation of an offer which seemed too good to be true.
"I think they do," said Aunt Molly, smiling, "and I can assure you, dear Mrs. Lennox, that whatever these young ladies undertake will be well and thoroughly done."
"How can we do it?" said Nan. "Do you mean for the English ladies to think we 're really servants?"
"Of course they must," cried Millicent, who had waked up to the glorious possibilities of the situation. "Unless it's a real masquerade, it 'll be no fun at all. But where can we get the right kind of caps and aprons?"
Aunt Molly volunteered to obtain them that very afternoon, and Mrs. Lennox, seeing that these strange girls were really in earnest, accepted the blessing Heaven had so unexpectedly sent her, and at once began to make the most of it.
"Which of you are the best cooks?" she inquired, with the air of a general marshaling his forces, but such a capable and straightforward general that no offense could possibly be felt.
"Hester and Marjorie," was the immediate reply of the other six.
"Very well," said Mrs. Lennox; "Hester shall be head cook, since you named her first, and Marjorie, assistant."
Then Jessie and Betty were selected as being the deftest waitresses, and Millicent and Helen were declared ideal lady's-maids.
Helen preferred to be Mrs. Lennox's own maid, so Millicent was allotted to the English visitors.
All agreed that Marguerite would make the most picturesque parlor-maid; and as no other post could be thought of, Nan said she would be private secretary and librarian. Mrs. Lennox entered heartily into the scheme, and agreed with Millicent that if the thing were done at all, it must be done completely and with most careful attention to the minutest details.
"Could you submit to be spoken to as menials, as you might be?" said Mrs. Lennox. "You would have to be modest and deferential, address me as 'madam,' and both the visitors as 'your ladyship.’"
But all this only made it seem more of a lark, and after copious directions Mrs. Lennox went home, the eight girls promising to appear ready for duty the next afternoon at two.
That night Aunt Molly returned from the city, bringing wonderful paraphernalia.
The waitresses were to wear white—piqué skirts and linen shirt-waists; their caps were of the conventional shape, and their aprons were voluminous indeed, with crossed straps and broad wings, which Uncle Ned declared could not be surpassed for acreage in all London.
The cooks were to wear white, too—linen blouses with rolled-up sleeves, and real cooks' caps.
The lady's-maids wore pink and blue gingham respectively, with aprons befrilled and beflounced, and most fetching little caps with ribbon bows.
But Marguerite was pronounced the "gem of the collection."
In her plain black dress, with a white apron of thin lawn, trimmed with a wide accordion-plaited ruffle, and tied back with a most enormous bow, a hand in each pocket of her apron, she looked like the coquettish parlor-maid one sees on the stage or in the comic papers; a bewitching little cap was jauntily perched on her fluffy golden hair, and her high-heeled slippers clicked gaily as she tripped around.
At two o'clock precisely, on the day of the performance, the eight presented themselves at Mrs. Lennox's door, and were admitted by that lady herself.
"Well, you are a proper-looking lot!" she exclaimed as the girls filed in, "and you 've taken a weight off my mind, I can tell you. When I woke this morning I thought it was all a dream,—your coming, I mean,—and I have not really felt sure of you until I saw you approaching. Goodness gracious, Miss Marguerite, I think her ladyship will open her eyes at my parlor-maid! Of course I shall call you all by your first names—they 're rather unusual for servants, some of them, but I 'll explain that American servants are often elaborately dubbed."
Then the girls flew to their respective places, and work began in earnest.
Hester and Marjorie were a bit appalled at the overflowing condition of Mrs. Lennox's larder; but Nan and Millicent, having nothing to do, came to their assistance, and a really fine dinner was soon in course of preparation.