The Greatest Plague of Life: or, the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant.Mayhew, Henry
General
The Greatest Plague of Life: or, the Adventures of a Lady in Search of a Good Servant.
Mayhew, Henry
English wit and humor; Household employees
As soon as Edward had gone to business, I ran upstairs and put on my
things, and stepped round to my dear mamma, to tell her all that had
occurred, and how Edward was exceeding sorry for what he had said, and
had asked me to grant him my pardon; and to prevail upon her to forget
all that had passed, and to come to dinner that day. My mamma commended
me for having been able to bring my husband to a proper sense of his
conduct; and said, that she was not the person to bear animosity to any
one, she was sure; though she could not help saying that the names he
had called that poor servant girl, under her awful affliction, had given
her quite a different opinion of his character, and that she was certain
she should never be able to like him half so well again. However, she
would try and wipe it all from her mind and begin anew, if it was only
for the sake of her own sweet Caroline, (that is myself.)
After we had taken a mouthful of some of the best cold roast pork I
think I ever tasted in the whole course of my life, and touched a little
stout by way of luncheon, my mamma told me that she was glad that things
had turned out as they had, for it had made her again determine to
present Edward with the valuable old painting of her noble ancestor,
F--tz-R--msb--tt--m, who is said to have come into England with the
Conqueror, and which relic, after Edward’s conduct last night, she had
made a vow should never belong to a man who could behave so unlike a
gentleman as he did. But now as all was straight, and I was her only
child, and the picture had been handed down in her family for years, and
she had always looked upon me as the heir-at-law to it, she would have
it brought round and put up in some part of the house where it could
always be before my eyes, and be continually reminding me of my station
in life, and that the noble blood of a R--msb--tt--m flowed in my veins.
When we went to look at the portrait of my noble ancestor, we could not
help remarking what a fine head it was, and that any one to look at him
might tell, from the likeness, that he was related to our family.
Though when I said I should wish to have it put up in the drawing-room,
and observed that it would be a nice thing to have hanging there on our
“At-home” day, as it would show Edward’s friends that he had not married
an ordinary person, and prove to them that our family were not mere
mushrooms who had never been heard of, mamma remarked that, if that was
the case, it would be better--now she thought of it--to have our
ancestor done up and cleaned a bit, as she said a good deal of the
nobility that was in his face was lost from its being so dirty as it
was; and that if he was fresh varnished and had a new frame, he would
certainly form a splendid ornament for our drawing-room, on our
“At-home” day. And that she knew a young man who had just started in
business in the H--mpst--d R--d, who would do it so cheaply that she was
sure Edward could not grumble at the expense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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