But, on the whole, they respected my efforts, and were proud of my self-possession.  I had more trouble with the younger ones, who were too young to help me, and whom I was too young to overawe.  I was busy one morning writing necessary letters, when James—­who was then seventeen, and the under-footman—­came to the drawing room and wished to speak to me.  When he had wasted a good deal of my time in describing his unwillingness to disturb me, and the years his father had lived in my father’s service, I said, ’James, I have important letters to write, and very little time to spare.  If you have any complaint to make, will you kindly put it as shortly as you can?’ ’I’m sure, my lady, I have no wish to complain,’ was James’s reply; and thereon his complaints poured forth in a continuous stream.  I took out my watch (unseen by James, for I never insult people), and gave him five minutes for his grievances.  He got on pretty fast with them.  He had mentioned the stone floor of his bed-room, a draught in the pantry, the overbearingness of the butler, the potatoes for the servants’ hall being under-boiled when the cook was out of temper, the inferior quality of the new plate-powder, the insinuations against his father’s honesty by servants who were upstarts by comparison, his hat having been spoilt by the rain, and that he never was so miserable in his life—­when the five minutes expired, and I said ’Then, James, you want to go?’ He coloured, and I really think tears stood in his eyes.  He was a good-hearted lad.

“When he began to say that he could never regard any other place as he looked on this, and that he felt towards his lordship and me as he could feel towards no other master and mistress, I gave him another five minutes for what he was pleased with.  To do him justice, the list was quite as long as that of his grievances.  No people were like us, and he had never been so happy in his life.  So I said, ’Then, James, you want to stay?’

“James began a fresh statement, in which his grievances and his satisfactions came alternately, and I cut this short by saying, ’Well, James, the difficulty seems to be that you have not made up your mind what you do want.  I have no time to balance matters for you, so you had better go downstairs and think it well over, and let me know what you decide.’

“He went accordingly, and when he was driven to think for himself by being stopped from talking to me, I suppose he was wise enough to perceive that it is easier to find crosses in one’s lot than to feel quite sure that one could change it for a better.  I have no doubt that he had not got all he might lawfully have wished for, but, different as our positions were, no more had I, and we both had to do our duty and make the best of life as we found it.  It’s a very good thing, dear child, to get into the habit of saying to oneself, ’One can’t have everything.’  I suppose James learned to say it, for he has lived with me ever since.”