Mr. Stuart was absent from morning till night, and all Christie ever
knew about him was that he was a kind-hearted, hot-tempered, and
very conceited man; fond of his wife, proud of the society they
managed to draw about them, and bent on making his way in the world
at any cost.
If masters and mistresses knew how skilfully they are studied,
criticised, and imitated by their servants, they would take more
heed to their ways, and set better examples, perhaps. Mrs. Stuart
never dreamed that her quiet, respectful Jane kept a sharp eye on
all her movements, smiled covertly at her affectations, envied her
accomplishments, and practised certain little elegancies that struck
her fancy.
Mr. Stuart would have become apoplectic with indignation if he had
known that this too intelligent table-girl often contrasted her
master with his guests, and dared to think him wanting in good
breeding when he boasted of his money, flattered a great man, or
laid plans to lure some lion into his house. When he lost his
temper, she always wanted to laugh, he bounced and bumbled about so
like an angry blue-bottle fly; and when he got himself up
elaborately for a party, this disrespectful hussy confided to Hepsey
her opinion that "master was a fat dandy, with nothing to be vain of
but his clothes,"--a sacrilegious remark which would have caused her
to be summarily ejected from the house if it had reached the august
ears of master or mistress.
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