was shell work and then t was pine and bead work s had its day and now she s much concerned with worked with silk i tell you that best room s a sight to see but you must n t look for anything elegant continued mrs after a moment s reflection mis martin s always been in very poor circumstances she had ambition for her children though they took right after their father an had little for themselves she wa n t over an above well married however kind she may see fit to speak she s been patient an hard by the queen s twin all her life and always high above mean complaints of other folks i expect all this business about the queen has her over many a place in life yes you might say that d been a slave but there ain t any slave but has some freedom iv presently i saw a low gray house standing on a grassy bank close to the road the door was at the side facing us and a of bushes and roses grew to the level of the window on the stood a bent shouldered little old woman there was an air of welcome and of unmistakable dignity about her she sees us coming exclaimed mrs in an excited whisper there i told her i might be over this way again if the weather held good and if i came i d bring you she said right off she d take great pleasure in a visit from you i was surprised she s usually so even this did not a faint apprehension on our part there was something distinctly formal in the occasion and one felt that consciousness of by the twin which is never easy for the pride to bear on the way i had torn my dress in an unexpected encounter with a little and i could now imagine how it felt to be going to court and forgetting one s feathers or her court train the queen s twin was of such trifles she stood waiting with a calm look until we came near enough to take her kind hand she was a beautiful old woman with clear eyes and a lovely and of manner there was not a trace of anything about her or as mrs would say beauty in age is rare enough in women who have spent their lives in the hard work of a but and withered as this woman may have looked her features had kept or rather gained a great refinement she led us into her old kitchen and gave us seats and took one of the little straight backed chairs herself and sat a short distance away as if she were giving audience to an it seemed as if we should all be standing you could not help feeling that the habits of her life were more but that for the moment she assumed the of the occasion by tee queen twin mrs was always mrs too great and self possessed a soul for any occasion to i admired her calmness and presently the slow current of neighborhood talk carried one easily along we spoke of the weather and the small adventures of the way and then as if i were after all not a stranger our hostess turned almost affectionately to speak to me the weather will be growing dark in london now i expect that you ve been in london dear she said oh yes i answered only last year it is a great many years since i was there along in the said mrs martin t was the only voyage i ever made most of my neighbors have been great my brother was master of a vessel and his wife usually sailed with him but that year she had a young child more frail than the others and she dreaded the care of it at sea it happened that my brother got a chance for my husband to go as being a good and came one day to urge him to take it he was very ill disposed to the sea but he had met with losses and i saw my own opportunity and by the queen twin persuaded them both to let me go too in those days they did n t object to a woman s being aboard to wash and mend the voyages were sometimes very long and that was the way i come to see the queen mrs martin was looking straight in my eyes to see if i showed any genuine interest in the most interesting person in the world oh i am very glad you saw the queen i hastened to say mrs has told me that you and she were bom the very same day we were indeed dear i said mrs martin and she leaned back comfortably and smiled as she had not smiled before mrs gave a satisfied nod and glance as if to say that things were going on as well as possible in this anxious moment yes said mrs martin again drawing her chair a little nearer twas a very remarkable thing we were bom the same day and at exactly the same hour after you allowed for all the difference in time my father figured it out sea fashion her majesty and i opened our eyes upon this world together say what you may t is a bond between us mrs assented with an air of by the queen s twin and her hat strings and threw them back over her shoulders with a gallant air and i married a man by the name of just the same as she did and all by chance for i did n t get the news that she had an too till a fortnight afterward news was slower coming then than it is now my first baby was a girl and i called her victoria 