England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; English fiction -- 19th century
"I advertised, and answered advertisements, but nothing came. My money
was going, and I should soon be as badly off as ever. I began to do
what I had always thought of as the very last thing, look for
needlework, either for home or in a workroom. I don't know how it is
that I have always hated sewing. For one thing, I really can't sew. I
was never taught as a child, and few girls are as clumsy with a needle
as I am. I've always looked upon a work-girl's life as the most
horrible drudgery; I'd far rather scrub floors. I suppose I've a
rebellious disposition, and just because sewing is looked upon as a
woman's natural slavery, I rebelled against it.
"By this time I was actually starving. I had one day to tell my
landlady I couldn't pay my rent. She was a very decent woman, and she
talked to me in a kind way. What was better, she gave me help. She had
a sister who kept a laundry, and she thought I might perhaps get
something to do there; at all events she would go and see. The result
was I got work. I was in the laundry nearly six months, and became
quite clever in getting up linen. Now this was a kind of work I liked.
You can't think what a pleasure it was to me to see shirts and collars
turning out so spotless and sweet--"
Waymark laughed.
"Oh, but you don't understand. I do so like cleanliness! I have a sort
of feeling when I'm washing anything, that I'm really doing good in the
world, and the dazzling white of linen after I'd ironed it seemed to
thank me for my work."
"Yes, yes, I understand well enough," said Waymark earnestly.
"For all that I couldn't stay. I was restless. I had a foolish notion
that I should like to be with a better kind of people again--I mean
people in a higher position. I still kept answering advertisements for
a lady's maid's place, and at last I got what I wanted. Oh yes, I got
it."
She broke off' laughing bitterly, and remained silent. Waymark would
not urge her to continue. For a minute it seemed as if she would tell
no more; she looked at her watch, and half arose.
"Oh, I may as well tell you all, now I've begun," she said, falling
back again in a careless way. "You know what the end's going to be;
never mind, at all events I'll try and make you understand how it came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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