CHAPTER III.
“ELIZABETH BARROWS,” HOUSEMAID.

My ring at Mrs. Allison’s door-bell was answered by the parlourmaid, who, without any explanations on my part, seemed at once to recognise me as a colabourer, and led me to the servants’ room on the fifth floor. I was immediately struck with the cheerless and comfortless aspect of the place where I was to sleep and, perchance, to dream for a week or longer. Three iron bedsteads stood in a row, and in front of each was a strip of ragged carpet. There were two chairs, a green chest of drawers, with a rickety-looking-glass on top, and two green washstands, with two bowls and pitchers. When I saw these latter articles, it occurred to me that I had been told three servants were to occupy the room, and I began to wonder whether I would be obliged to share my washbasin with the cook or the parlourmaid. I did not like the prospect of such a contingency, and I was far from being convinced of the truth of the saying that “whatever is, is right.” Still, I was philosophical enough to understand that, whatever must be, must be, and I commenced to unpack my few belongings. Annie, the parlourmaid, had indicated the drawer in the green chest which was to be my individual property, so I put away my caps, aprons, collars, cuffs, and the blue print dress I was to don the next morning. Over the mantel hung a brightly-coloured motto. It read, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” The verse was very a propos and inspired fresh courage in my trembling heart as I tied on my prettiest apron and went to the glass to adjust my cap. Then, after a final satisfactory glance into the mirror, I descended to Mrs. Allison’s sittingroom on the second floor. I found that lady dusting the various ornaments on her writing-desk with a yellow silk duster.

She smiled propitiously upon me, and said, “Good-evening, Elizabeth. Go right down to the kitchen. Annie will tell you about the work.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied; “but please call me Lizzie I like it better.”

“Very well, Lizzie.”

That was the extent of our conversation. Mrs. Allison had no words to waste on her servants. Indeed, I was glad of it. When I had first called on her, she listened respectfully to the story I had to tell, took its truthfulness for granted, and said she would do the same thing in my circumstances. She asked no unnecessary questions, and I was prepared to like her because she had not attempted to pry into my family secrets nor to deprive me of my fringe. I had explained to her that, although I might be above the ordinary servant in education and bringing up, I did not wish it to make any difference in her treatment of me. In this matter she had respected my wishes, and I felt that I was in a fair way to find out just what were her relations with the young women who were employed in her household in the capacity of domestic helps.

In the kitchen I found Annie standing before the fire grilling mutton chops. She explained that a new cook would be there the following Monday, and that she was to prepare the meals until then. Eyeing me critically, she exclaimed, “Did she tell you to wear caps with streamers?” I guessed that “she “referred to the mistress of the house, and informed her that I was wearing streamers on my own responsibility. She thought my style was much prettier than her own French caps, and declared her intention of purchasing some like mine.

“Been out to service before?” was her next inquiry.

“No; this is my first place.”

“You’ll find it’s not so easy as it looks,” she remarked, with a very superior and knowing air. “We’re on board wages till the cook comes,” she continued. “There’s your allowance on the shelf.”

I remembered that at home some of our own servants had often referred enthusiastically to certain times when they had been put on board wages and the money they had been able to lay by at the end of the week. I walked with elastic steps towards the shelf to which Annie pointed, and picked up 1s. 6d. Then my hopes went down about 90 degrees in the shade.

“Is this to buy breakfast?” I asked.

Annie tittered.

“Well, I should say it was to buy breakfast, dinner, supper, and afternoon tea,” was her announcement.

Who would have believed it ? To be sure, I had never sat down and calculated to a nicety just the quantity of eatables is. 6d. would buy ; but still I doubted my ability to make it go that far, especially when I learned that pepper, salt, mustard, vinegar, and sugar were also included in the meals. I began to have great respect for that is. 6d.

I saw that Annie was inclined to be friendly, which was a source of great satisfaction to me, for I knew there must exist a spirit of camaraderie between myself and fellow-servants, else I should never be able to accomplish what I had set out to do—that is, discover the ins and outs of domestic service. I was fully prepared to enter into the joys and sorrows of the kitchen, and with that in view I tried to be as agreeable as possible to Annie. She had noticed nothing peculiar about me, with the exception of streamers. If my manner of speech was different from hers, she did not observe it, but took me for one of her own kind. Annie’s attitude toward me was not in any way intended to add to my self-conceit, and any intellectual bearing I might have thought I possessed did not apparently show up to advantage in the garb of cap and apron.

Later in the evening we made the round of the rooms. Annie gave me explicit instructions as to how to tidy them up, turn down the beds and make the washstands ready for use. When this work was done, I was more tired than I had ever been in my life. What with emptying out the washbowls and refilling the pitchers, I had gone up and down two flights of stairs eight times, carrying heavy water-cans and pails. To the kitchen we again descended, and, while I wiped the dishes, Annie entertained me by telling me something of the family with whom I was to live. There were Mr. and Mrs. Allison, three daughters, and two sons. Two of the young ladies were at the seaside, and would return with their maid on Saturday. The staff of servants included cook, parlourmaid, housemaid, and ladies’ maid. Annie had formerly been housemaid in the family where she was now parlourmaid, so she was able to instruct me as to my duties. She opened a little cupboard off the kitchen and brought out a basket of underwear and stockings. It was the housemaid’s basket, and I was to spend my evenings in attending to the mending. I looked aghast at the contents. How should I, with my slight knowledge of needlework, attempt to darn the woollen socks of the gentlemen of the house? Just then Annie was called to the hall to answer the whistle of the speaking-tube, and returned to say that Mrs. Allison would see me in the study and give me a list of the work I was to do the following day. I welcomed this news as a present deliverance from the mending problem, but when I got that list from Mrs. Allison, I felt that my doom was sealed. It seemed to me that the responsibilities put upon my shoulders were tremendous. I was to rise at six in the morning, and my first duty was to shake and brush Mr. Allison’s trousers, which I would find hanging on the doorknob outside his room. I was about to inform Mrs. Allison that I did not engage as a valet, and was not up in the art of brushing trousers, when I suddenly remembered that I was not a “young lady “now, but a “young person,” expected to do with her might whatever her hands found to do. Did not the motto in my bedroom so inform me ? I made no remarks, and listened for the second duty, which was to brush Mrs. Allison’s dress and carry all the boots to the kitchen for Annie to polish. I was glad of the latter clause, for, had I been told to shine the boots, I think I should have despaired. Afterwards I would sweep and dust four flights of stairs and five halls, clean up and dust the study and drawing-rooms, and carry a can of hot water to each person, knocking on the door to wake him or her up. I concluded that when I had accomplished all these things, I should have done a good day’s work; but were my ears deceiving me ? What was Mrs. Allison saying ?

“Then you may eat your breakfast! “

So I was to achieve all those Herculean feats on an empty stomach! Well, if that was the case, I certainly ought to be able to perform wonders after I had breakfasted.

Mrs. Allison continued with her list, never noting my perturbed countenance.

“After you have breakfasted, Lizzie, you must help Annie with the dishes, then make the beds, clean up the washstands, fill the water-jugs, sweep and dust the bedrooms, attend to the candlesticks, and put everything in perfect order in the sitting-rooms. You will get this done by eleven o’clock.” (On that point I was tempted to contradict her flatly, but I knew discretion was the better part of valour, and preserved silence.) “From eleven till three,” went on my mistress, “you will turn out one or two of the rooms and eat your dinner in the meantime. At four o’clock I want you to be dressed with clean cap and apron. Then you will get the servants’ afternoon tea and clear it away, and you can fill up the time until supper with needlework.” (That needlework still relentlessly pursued me.) After supper I was to make the round of the rooms again and sew until a quarter-past ten. Then I might go to bed, a consummation devoutly to be wished for!

After hearing the “list,” I bowed politely to Mrs. Allison, said, “Very well, ma’am,” and joined Annie in the kitchen. She greeted me with a fiendish grin, and said, “Did she say anything about the scrubbing?”

“Scrubbing! Must I scrub?” I almost shrieked.

“You’ll think so, when you get at it! Why, you have to scrub a bedroom all over every day, and sometimes two! You see, you must turn out a room each day, and there’s no carpet on the bedrooms; only a narrow rug- before the bed. On turning out day, you must shake the rug and scrub up the floor and the paint. It do make your hands and arms ache, I tell you. It’s too bad you took such a hard place for your first time in service! “

She said this rather pityingly. No wonder! I pitied myself. It was ten o’clock.

“Come,” said I, “let us go to bed. I’m so tired! “

Annie laughed.

“Well, you’re a greeny, sure enough! When you’re in service, you can’t go to bed when you like. Master Tom is out, and hasn’t a key. We’ll have to let him in. You might do some needlework while we’re waiting.”

That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. I put my head down on the kitchen table and silently wept.

At eleven o’clock Master Tom came in, and we went to our bedroom. I noted that the bed had neither springs nor hair mattress, but I slept, nevertheless, and all night long in my dreams came visions of much-worn scrubbing-brushes and basket upon basket of gentlemen’s undarned socks. Suddenly I heard a loud noise like the clanking of a cow-bell. I jumped up, and went to Annie’s bed to demand the meaning of the horrible racket.

“Why, it’s six o’clock; that’s all. The missus has an alarm-bell connected with her room. She sends it off every morning to make us get up.”

I was dressed in an instant, and with my written list in hand, started off to attend to order number one. The trousers and the dress were duly brushed, the stairs and halls swept and dusted, and each person supplied with a hot-water can. Then I went into the study, which was a large room. There were dozens of ornaments on the desk and mantel, which it seemed an endless task to dust and rearrange. My head ached for the want of food, yet I knew that I had not only the study to finish, but two large drawing-rooms to attend to. I noticed that the drawing rooms and the study were the only really cheerful rooms in the house. All the comforts and pictures and ornaments were crowded together in these rooms, and to do them up properly was no easy piece of work, but they were on the list to be done before breakfast. At 8.30 I had finished them, however, and went to the kitchen.

Annie informed me that the servants’ cupboard was in a veritable Mother Hubbard state, and, if I wanted anything for breakfast besides tea and bread, I must go and buy it. I took my is. 6d. and went out to shop, and, remembering that my own home was only a short distance from the place where I was “in service,” I ran around there and filled my basket with provisions, while my is. 6d. remained intact. Annie’s face beamed when she saw the wonderful purchases I had effected, all with is. 6d., and I then and there established the reputation of being a good provider. She insisted that she must share the expense, and wished to know the price of each article, which I gave her as follows:— One pound of strawberry jam (whole berries), 2d. per pound; two pounds of best mutton chops, 6d.; three pounds of fresh tomatoes, 3d. for the lot; four rashers best streaked bacon, ½d. per rasher; large piece of beef for roasting, 5d. Annie declared she never knew you could buy things so cheap, and wanted the addresses of the shops I patronised. It is unnecessary to say that I had forgotten their location, and it is also needless to explain that from that time, until the cook came, I was delegated to do the marketing and hunt up these daily bargains, much to the diminishing of the contents of the larder at home. That morning we breakfasted off mutton chops and tomato sauce, while the family up-stairs were content to start the day with one egg each and a slice of toast.

That first day “in service” lingers in my memory as a sort of nightmare. The whole house seemed arranged in such a way as to make the work as hard as possible. The bath-room was on the top floor, and, as all the water must be carried from there to the bedrooms below, it was no small matter to fill the water-pitchers. Then, in washing, every member of the family seemed to have taken particular pains to spill as much water about as possible, and everything had to be removed from the washstands before they could be put in order. All this might have been prevented had the bowls been filled not quite so full and a little care been exercised. Everything was thrown down where it had been used, though it was just as easy to return these various articles to their proper places. The linen cupboard in Mrs. Allison’s room was guarded by an immense couch, on which were piled dozens of boxes containing dresses, which must all be removed before I could get fresh towels. Then the couch had to be pushed back again, and the boxes heaped on top. All the bedrooms were gloomy and devoid of comfort, to say nothing of ornaments. The floors, as Annie had informed me, were not carpeted, and served to bring forcibly to my mind the scrubbing I should have to do. Eleven o’clock came, and I had not finished the bedroom work. There were all the candlesticks to scrape off. One of them, a handsome bronze figure of Minerva, it took me just one hour to get clean. The armour, draperies, and petticoats of the goddess were plentifully sprinkled with candle grease, which soap and water failed to eradicate, so there was nothing to do but scrape it off with a hair-pin, all of which took much valuable time. “What, an hour spent in cleaning a candlestick!” some sensible housewife may exclaim. I can only tell her to get a bronze Minerva and see if she can do it in quicker time.

At half-past one Annie and I were eating dinner, when a whistle sounded through the speaking tube.

“Yes, ma’am,” I called, ready to take Mrs. Allison’s order.

“Lizzie, you did not close the schoolroom window. Come up and attend to it.”

I went to the schoolroom, on the top floor; it was five flights from the kitchen. The lady of the house sat at a table reading a magazine. I closed the window and went down to finish my dinner.

This was an instance of the way Mrs. Allison tried to “smooth over the rough places” for me and make my situation as comfortable as possible.