Trials and Confessions of a HousekeeperArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
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Trials and Confessions of a Housekeeper
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Home economics -- Fiction; Housekeeping -- Fiction; Housewives -- Fiction
"O no! Not this!" said she, with a curl of the lip, and an impatient
tossing of her head. "How stupid you are, Hannah! The book I want,
contains prints, and this is only a music book! There! Take it back,
and bring me the book of prints."
Hannah took the book, and muttering as she went out, returned to the
parlor, down two long flights of stairs, and laid it upon the piano.
"If you want the pictures, you may get them yourself, Miss; you've
got more time to run up and down stairs than I have."
As she said this Hannah left the parlor, and the book of prints
lying upon the piano, and went back to the chamber she had been
engaged in cleaning up when called away by Helen's bell. It was not
long after she had resumed her occupation, before the bell sounded
loudly through the passages. Hannah smiled bitterly, and with an air
of resolution, as she listened to the iron summons.
"Pull away to your heart's content, Miss!" she said, half audibly.
"When you call me again take care and know what you want me for.
I've got something else to do besides running up and down stairs to
bring you pictures. Why didn't you look at them while you were in
the parlor, or, take them up with you, if you wanted them in your
chamber?"
"Did you ever see the like!" ejaculated Helen, deeply disturbed at
finding both her direction and her subsequent summons unattended to.
"That's just the way we are constantly served by these abominable
creatures."
Two or three heavy jerks at the bell rope followed these remarks.
"Pull away! It's good exercise for you!" muttered Hannah to herself.
And this was all the notice she took of the incensed young lady, who
was finally compelled to go down stairs and get the prints herself.
But she was so much disturbed and caused Fanny to feel so
unpleasantly that neither of them had any real enjoyment in
examining the beautiful pictures. After these had been turned over
and remarked upon for some time, and they had spent an hour in
conversation, the bell was again rung. Hannah, who came with her
usual reluctance, was directed to prepare some lemonade, and bring
it up with cake. This she did, after a good deal of delay, for which
she was grumbled at by Helen. After the cake bad been eaten, and the
lemonade drank, Hannah was again summoned to remove the waiter. This
was performed with the same ill grace that every other service had
been rendered.
"I declare! these servants worry me almost to death!" Helen again
broke forth. "This is just the way I am served whenever I have a
visiter. It is always the time Hannah takes to be ill-natured and
show off her disobliging, ugly temper."
Fanny made no reply to this. But she had her own thoughts. It was
plain enough to her mind, that her friend had only herself to blame,
for the annoyance she suffered. After witnessing one or two mote
petty contentions with the domestic, Fanny went away, her friend
promising, at her particular request, to come and spend a day with
her early in the ensuing week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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