Thereupon she ceased suddenly, and sitting up on the floor, her legs
doubled under her in eastern fashion, looked straight at Hester, and
said thoughtfully, as if the question had just come, with force to make
her forget the suffering she was in--
"I _should_ like to know how you would do in my place--that I
should, miss!"
The words spoken, her eyes fell, and she sat still as a statue, seeming
steadfastly to regard her own lap.
"I am afraid, if I were in your place, I should do nothing so well as
you, Amy," said Hester. "But come, tell me what is the matter. What puts
you in such a misery?"
"Oh, it's not one thing nor two things nor twenty things!" answered Amy,
looking sullen with the feeling of heaped-up wrong. "What _would_
my mother say to see me served so! _She_ used to trust me
everywhere and always! I don't understand how those two prying
suspicious old maids _can_ be _my_ mother's sisters!"
She spoke slowly and sadly, without raising her eyes.
"Don't they behave well to you, my poor child?" said Hester.
"It's not," returned Amy, "that they watch every bit I put in my
mouth--I don't complain of that, for they're poor--at least they're
always saying so, and of course they want to make the most of me; but
not to be trusted one moment out of their sight except they know exactly
where I am--to be always suspected, and followed and watched, and me
working my hardest--that's what drives me wild, Miss Raymount.
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