The Magnificent Masquerade by Elizabeth Mansfield

be seeing to Miss Jessup's toilette by this time."
    "Aye, Mr. Naismith, it won't take long. Come
along, girl, follow me."
    As the housekeeper (so tiny in stature that she
made Kitty feel tall) hurried down the stone steps with Kitty close behind, the
butler turned to his table and poured himself a brandy. He took a large swig,
rolled the liquor round his mouth, swallowed, and sighed deeply. Then he leaned
over the railing. "You, girl," he barked down at Kitty who was just
disappearing from his view, "remember that you're employed here through my
graciousness. So try not to do anything-or say anything-to make me sorry!"
    Kitty merely nodded and continued on her way.
The butler looked up at the vaulted ceiling in disgust. "I'll be
sorry," he muttered to the gods above who were forever trying to do him
in. "I can wager his lordship's best brandy on it. That girl'll make me
sorry."
    Chapter Eight
    Kitty appeared at Emily's door twenty minutes
later in full housemaid regalia. Her hair was pulled tightly back and braided
in one firm plait, her head was topped with the frilled cap, and all the rest
of her was clothed in a black bombazine dress trimmed with the primmest white
collar and cuffs and covered by the most stiffly starched apron either of them
had ever seen. Emily gaped at her for a moment and then burst into laughter.
"Oh, it's you, Miss Jessup," she managed to say between giggles.
"I almost didn't recognize you!" "Hush! Do you want someone to
hear?" Kitty hissed, closing the door quickly. "1 told you never to
call me that! I'm Emily, remember!"
    "I'm sorry, miss. It's not easy to change
the habits of one's lifetime."
    "I know," Kitty agreed ruefully.
"I almost found myself dressing down the butler."
    "Really?" Emily's dimpled smile
appeared again. "What did you say to him?"
    "I started out by asking him-in my best
lady-of-the-manor voice, mind you!-if he was always so rude to guests, but he
quickly put me in my place, saying in the most pompous way imaginable, “Since
when, young woman, is an abigail to be considered a guest?"' Kitty
imitated his nasal intonations to perfection and even aped his manner of turning
up his doleful eyes to the heavens.
    Emily collapsed in laughter on the bed, and
Kitty joined in, perching on the edge. But she recovered herself quickly,
realizing that they didn't have much time. "Really, Emily," she said,
turning serious, "whatever possessed you to spend the afternoon making
tisanes? You've got to learn to stop doing for people."
    "Was it wrong of me to do so?" Emily
asked, her elongated dimples disappearing with her smile. "It took only a
few moments, and when Alicia began to feel better, Lady Edith was so
grateful."
    "Was she? Then you must be playing your
part very well." Kitty eyed her with a touch of envy. "And a great
deal better than I am."
    Emily shook her head. "I don't know, Miss
Jessup. Lady Edith seems pleased with me, and her daughter, too, but his
lordship has several times stared at me with a puzzled expression, and he's
remarked more than once that I am not quite what he expected."
    "Oh, no, has he really?" Kitty got up
and began to pace about worriedly. "Did he say in what way?"
    "Not exactly. Though he did tell his
mother before we arrived that he expected you ... me ... you to be
hoydenish."
    "Hoydenish?" Kitty stopped in her
tracks. "He called me hoydenish?" Her cheeks reddened angrily.
"What effrontery! Whatever gave him that idea?"
    A bit of dimple showed itself in Emily's
cheeks. "I can't imagine," she said almost seriously.
    Kitty caught the glint in the other girl's
brown eyes and instantly realized how foolish she'd sounded. Her anger subsided
at once. "Very well, I am hoydenish," she admitted with a -sheepish
grin. "I admit it. But I don't see how it's become known to the world at
large. I suppose my father told him so."
    "Probably so," Emily agreed.
    "Well, never mind. You'll show him that
Kitty Jessup can behave like the most ladylike creature in the world.