So, early the next morning, after the boy from the grocer's round the
street had given the necessary directions, they found themselves in the
neighbourhood of the Piræus Road, and Mattina toiled after her aunt,
up narrow dusty streets in search of the house where a new serving
maid was wanted.
She was very hot and uncomfortable, for her aunt had insisted on her
wearing her new brown frock with the pocket in it, as being by far
the best in her bundle. This it certainly was, but also very thick
and warm and the heat was coming fast that year. Though the Saint's
day of St. Constantine and St. Helen was till some time off, the May
wreaths--which are hung over all balconies or front doors of houses in
Athens on the first day of May and left hanging there until replaced by
the fresh wreath, the following year--were already hanging withered and
yellow from the house doors and balconies. After many wrong turnings,
and many inquiries at neighbouring grocers' and bakers' shops, the
aunt and the niece stopped before the wide open door of a house in
a street behind the Piræus Road. The narrow entry certainly looked
as if it were a long time since the last serving maid had scrubbed
it. A woman with a long face and a fat body was standing just inside
with a packet of macaroni in her hands.
"What do you want?" she called out sharply.
Kyra Demetroula advanced a step.
"Good day to you, Kyria," and as she said it she pushed Mattina a
little forward. "They told us that you wanted a girl to serve you,
and because we have heard much good of your house, I have brought
you my niece."
"Your niece! What? That child! Much work she can do! Who sent you?"
"It was the butcher in the big road here, who told us that...."
"Come inside! Let me see her better! I should never think of such
a small maid but that it is a bad season for servants, and that I
have been three days without one." Then turning to Mattina, "How old
are you?"
Now no one had ever thought of telling Mattina her age; she was a
big girl, since her mother had often trusted her of late to make
the bread, and that was all she knew about it. She looked up at the
woman and noticed that she had little black eyes like currants, a
nose that went in before it came out, and a mouth that had no lips;
then she quietly answered her question by another one.
"How should I know my years?"