"Yah wouldn't see me break my back, an' my poor 'orse standin'
there a lookin' on--would ye now?"
"Why don't you bring a man with you?" objected the footman, as he
descended the steps notwithstanding, to give the required
assistance. "I ain't paid as a crane.--By Juppiter! what a weight
the new party's boxes is!"
"Only that one," said Mary, apologetically. "It is full of books.
The other is not half so heavy."
"Oh, it ain't the weight, miss!" returned the footman, who had
not intended she should hear the remark. "I believe Mr. Cabman
and myself will prove equal to the occasion."
With that the book-box came down a great bump on the pavement,
and presently both were in the hall, the one on the top of the
other. Mary paid the cabman, who asked not a penny more than his
fare; he departed with thanks; the facetious footman closed the
door, told her to take a seat, and went away full of laughter, to
report that the young person had brought a large library with her
to enliven the dullness of her new situation.
Mrs. Perkin smiled crookedly, and, in a tone of pleasant reproof,
desired her laughter-compressing inferior not to forget his
manners.
"Please, ma'am, am I to leave the young woman sittin' up there
all by herself in the cold?" he asked, straightening himself up.
"She do look a rayther superior sort of young person," he added,
"and the 'all-stove is dead out.
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