Compared with the department store, the premium station, and the Sea Foam Hotel this position was a holiday among perfect surroundings. It is true that week-ends every servant had as much as he or she could properly do. The rest of the time the chambermaids finished their work before ten o’clock. After that I arranged for them to go off, leaving two on watch until lunch-time. At lunch the watch changed, and again at seven, their dinner-hour. This last watch remained on until ten, which was supposed to be the family bedtime. All that was required of them was to sit, one on each bedroom floor, and be ready to respond promptly when called. While on watch I encouraged, or at least I tried to encourage, these girls to read, to sew, or do any quiet handiwork. So far as I saw, it was effort thrown away. Not one of the five ever darned her stockings—of course they all wore silk stockings, also silk underwear. Indeed, I believe three out of the five boasted that she never wore anything besides silk except when she was on duty. Instead of employing her mind or her fingers, one and all of the five would sit gazing out the nearest window and resort to all sorts of tricks to go to the servants’ quarters. Judging by these women, and the thousands of other men and women of the same race, I am convinced that what we are pleased to call “wonderful Irish imagination” is the result of idleness—air-castle building. They are the most gorgeous of liars. Each and every one of the maids at Sutton House claimed to be direct descendants of an Irish king. One of them assured me that if she had her “rights” she would be living in a palace and never have to “turn her hand”—the Princess Royal of Ireland. Each one of them had so many saints in her family that I used to wonder how she kept track of them all. Needless to say, they were inveterate churchgoers. Such weird ideas as they attributed to their priest! “Father Hallahan said we were not to abuse the Germans,” one of them told the Italian scrubwoman. “The Germans are good friends to the Irish.” This failing to impress the scrubwoman, the Princess Royal gave additional information. “Yes, and the order came straight from Rome,” said she, with a defiant toss of her nappy-looking head. This so aroused the little Italian woman that she damned the Germans and she damned the Irish, but most of all she damned Rome. I have never seen a more furious human being. How she rolled out Italian swear words! Her husband was in the Italian army and she was struggling to keep their little home together and their children at school. Her father, her brother, and two of her husband’s brothers had been killed in the war.