certificates, all of which bore testimony to his merits, and she accordingly hired him.
During the whole period between his coming into and quitting the room, a sort of panic had seized Rosilia, who was not given to forbode evil, but was, in this instance, terrified by the idea that he might be one of a gang of robbers, and had presented himself at so late an hour with the intent only of gaining entrance into the house, and, as the dead of night advanced, of admitting his comrades. The rapidity and singular vivacity of his remarks, the large open eye, rolling upon her, the continual motion of his person, the foot advancing, then retreating,—were these gestures the effect of timid awkwardness, so often witnessed in his class upon their first recommendation of themselves? The bold and daring look contradicted the suggestion; and whenever Rosilia's eye, in spite of herself, strayed to where he stood, she was sensible of an inward shudder: "How precipitate," thought she, "has my mother been to engage him at such an hour!"
Her fears thus prevailing, she communicated them to her mother as soon as the object of them had retired, who not in the least participating in them, they gradually subsided; but for an interval only, for, when retired to her chamber, during the hours of repose, every sound intimidated her; the growling of their faithful dog, or a halfsuppressed bark, brought the looks of the new domestic again before her sight.
