Sara gasped as she and Mrs Whitling stopped in front of the largest house she had ever seen. It was even bigger than Miss Minchin's. Mrs Whitling led her to an enormous front door and rang one of the three bells next to it. Looking behind her, she saw that Sara was looking very bemused.

"I will explain everything to you in a minute." She assured her, "The children have taken a nap and shall not wake for several hours. It will give us time to explain everything, for me to give you a tour and for you to meet the other staff."

"Thank you Ma'am." Sara said quickly, worried that if she didn't say it fast, she wouldn't pluck up the courage to say it at all. But Mrs Whitling wasn't stupid, however young she was. Though she looked like she was still in her teens, she was very obviously in charge. When a youngish, red-faced girl with a torn skirt and hair falling out of her cap Mrs Whitling took no scruples. She reprimanded the girl and made it clear what would happen if she didn't put her act together. Sara stood nervously and followed Mrs Whitling closely, for fear of getting lost and then punished on her first day.

Mrs Whitling briefly took her up to the nursery to see the children. There were three, all girls, in beds that looked like the Three Bears. In fact EVERYTHING in the room was three different sizes and the same in the day nursery. Oh, well. At least there would be less "That's mine!"/"No it's not!" arguments. The Mistress then took her downstairs into a posh living room where she perched on a soft, muslin chair, terrified of making it dirty. The Mistress told her her duties in great detail. Then she rang all three bells (those bell appeared in every room) and three people came rushing in.

One was the girl in disgrace that she had seen before, one was a tall girl with small eyes and a turned up nose and the other was a too-thin, blond-haired man with a ready smile. They introduced themselves as housemaid May, ladies maid Prudence and odd-job man Oliver. She smiled and introduced herself as Sara and the Mistress told then that she was coming to work as a nurse for the children. The smiled and seemed nice enough. They were sent away and the Mistress gave her the grand tour and she met Mrs McGregory, a friendly Scottish woman who served as the cook.

And then she heard the front door slam and the Master came in...