Franklin's way--very
slyly and quietly, but she did it. He took about as much notice of her
as he took of the cat; it never seemed to occur to him to waste a look
on Rosanna's plain face. The poor thing's appetite, never much, fell
away dreadfully; and her eyes in the morning showed plain signs of
waking and crying at night. One day Penelope made an awkward discovery,
which we hushed up on the spot. She caught Rosanna at Mr. Franklin's
dressing-table, secretly removing a rose which Miss Rachel had given him
to wear in his button-hole, and putting another rose like it, of her own
picking, in its place. She was, after that, once or twice impudent
to me, when I gave her a well-meant general hint to be careful in her
conduct; and, worse still, she was not over-respectful now, on the few
occasions when Miss Rachel accidentally spoke to her.
My lady noticed the change, and asked me what I thought about it. I
tried to screen the girl by answering that I thought she was out of
health; and it ended in the doctor being sent for, as already mentioned,
on the nineteenth. He said it was her nerves, and doubted if she was fit
for service. My lady offered to remove her for change of air to one of
our farms, inland.
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