An Awkward Meeting

Elspeth, the maid, was a girl of eighteen or twenty, with a thin figure
encased in a lavender print gown, and flaxen hair pulled so tightly back
from her forehead that her eyebrows seemed to be permanently elevated by
the process. Her face shone from the effects of constant soaping, and
was absolutely void of expression. From morn till night she rushed
breathlessly from one duty to another, rated continuously by Mrs
McNab's strident voice, with never so much as a bleat of protest. When
waiting at table, she snored loudly from nervousness, and the big red
fist trembled as she carried the dishes to and fro, but her face
remained blankly expressionless as before. Margot smiled at her
radiantly every time that they met, and mentally decided to bequeath to
her half her own wardrobe before leaving the Glen. In comparison with
such a lot of drudgery, her own life seemed inexcusably idle and self-
indulgent!

It took a considerable amount of courage to beard in her own den a woman
of whom the members of her own household stood in such evident awe, but
there was at least no nervousness apparent in Margot's manner as she
tapped at the kitchen door at eleven o'clock that first morning, and
thrust her pretty face round the opening to request permission to enter.
Mrs McNab had descended from her work upstairs, and surely her heart
must be softened by the spectacle of those two immaculately tidy rooms!

"Mrs McNab, I'm cold! May I come in and warm myself by your fire?"