And she has her own tea and bread and butter and sugar; and anything
else she requires she fetches from the kitchen, walking about haughtily
among the other servants, and not staying longer than is necessary to
get what things she requires.
I went very often to Maureen's room.
For one thing, it was like looking into my childhood to go there. It is
so still. The nursery pictures are on the wall, and in a cupboard there
are my discarded books and toys, with others of an earlier date than
mine. There is the dolls' house which was given to my great-grandmother
when she was a child by Lord Kilwarden, that just judge who was a great
friend of our family. It is not so elaborate as the dolls' houses of
to-day, but it is big enough for a small child to creep within it, and
it seemed wonderful to me as it had done to my mother before me, and to
my Aunt Eleanor, who was Theobald's mother. I know my grandmother loves
the dolls' house, and would not consent to its being put away in the
lumber-room.
In winter Maureen's room is the warmest spot of the house, which is old
and draughty, and I have always gone there when I have wanted to get the
chill out of my bones. Maureen will sit by the window sewing, while I
get down on to the little stool which used to be mine in my childhood
and look into the heart of the flame and imagine things there.
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