FROM CAMILLA'S DIARY
It is nearly six months since I came to live with Mrs. Francis, and I
like housework so well and am so happy at it, that it shows clearly
that I am not a disguised heiress. My proud spirit does not chafe a bit
at having to serve meals and wear a cap (you should see how sweet I
look in a cap). I haven't got the fear on my heart all day that I will
make a mistake in a figure that will rise up and condemn me at the end
of the month as I used to be when I was book-keeping on a high stool,
for the Western Hail and Fire Insurance Company (peace to its ashes!).
"All work is expression," Fra Elbertus says, so why may I not express
myself in blueberry pie and tomato soup?
Mrs. Francis is an appreciative mistress, and she is not so entirely
wrapped up in Browning as to be insensible to a good salad either, I am
glad to say.
One night after we had company and everything had gone off well, Mr.
Francis came out into the kitchen, and looked over his glasses at me.
He opened his mouth twice to speak, but seemed to change his mind. I
knew what was struggling for utterance. Then he laid fifty cents on the
window sill, pointed at it, nodded to me, and went out hurriedly. My
first impulse was to hand it back--then I thought better of it--words
do not come easily to him. So he expressed himself in currency. I put
the money into my purse for a luck penny.
Mrs. Francis is as serene as a summer sea, and can look at you without
knowing you are there. Mr. Francis is a peaceful man, too. He looks at
his wife in a helpless way when she begins to explain the difference
between the Elizabethan and the Victorian poets--I don't believe he
cares a cent for either of them.
Mrs. Francis entertains quite a bit; I like it, too, and I do not go
and cry into the sink because I have to wait on the guests. She
entertains well and is a delightful hostess, but some of the people
whom she entertains do not appreciate her flights of fancy.
I do not like to see them wink at each other, although I know it is
funny to hear Mrs. Francis elaborate on the mother's influence in the
home and the proper way to deal with selfishness in children; but she
means well, and they should remember that, no matter how funny she gets.
April 18th.--She gave me a surprise to-day. She called me upstairs and
read to me a paper she was preparing to read before some society--she
belongs to three or four--on the domestic help problem. Well, it hadn't
very much to do with the domestic help problem, but of course I could
not tell her that so when she asked me what I thought of it I said:
"If all employers were as kind as you and Mr. Francis there would be no
domestic help problem."
She looked at me suddenly, and something seemed to strike her. I
believe it came to her that I was a creature of like passions with
herself, capable of gratitude, perhaps in need of encouragement.
Hitherto I think she has regarded me as a porridge and coffee machine.
She put her arm around me and kissed me.
"Camilla," she said gently--she has the softest, dreamiest voice I ever
heard--"I believe in the aristocracy of brains and virtue. You have
both."
Farewell, oh Soulless Corporation! A long, last, lingering farewell,
for Camilla E. Rose, who used to sit upon the high stool and add
figures for you at ten dollars a week, is far away making toast for two
kindly souls, one of whom tells her she has brains and virtue and the
other one opens his mouth to speak, and then pushes fifty cents at her
instead.
Danny Watson, bless his heart! is bringing madam up. He has wound
himself into her heart and the "whyness of the what" is packing up to
go.
May 1st.--Mrs. Francis is going silly over Danny. A few days ago she
asked me if I could cut a pattern for a pair of pants. I told her I had
made pants once or twice and meekly inquired whom she wanted the pants
for. She said for a boy, of course--and she looked at me rather
severely. I knew they must be for Danny, and cut the pattern about the
size for him. She went into the sewing-room, and I only saw her at meal
times for two days. She wrestled with the garment.
Last night she asked me if I would take a parcel to Danny with her
love. I was glad to go, for I was just dying to see how she had got
along.
When I held them up before Mrs. Watson the poor woman gasped.
"Save us all!" she cried. "Them'll fit none of us. We're poor, but,
thank God, we're not deformed!"
I'll never forget the look of those pants. They haunt me still.
May 15th.--Pearl Watson is the sweetest and best little girl I know.
Her gratitude for even the smallest kindness makes me want to cry. She
told me the other day she was sure Danny was going to be a doctor. She
bases her hopes on the questions that Danny asks. How do you know you
haven't got a gizzard? How would you like to be ripped clean up the
back? and Where does your lap go to when you stand up? She said, "Ma
and us all have hopes o' Danny."
Mrs. Francis has a new role, that of matchmaker, though I don't suppose
she knows it. She had Mary Barner and the young minister for tea
to-night. Mary grows dearer and sweeter every day. People say it is not
often one girl praises another; but Mary is a dear little gray-eyed
saint with the most shapely hands I ever saw. Reverend Hugh thinks so,
too, I have no doubt. It was really too bad to waste a good fruit salad
on him though, for I know he didn't know what he was eating. Excelsior
would taste like ambrosia to him if Mary sat opposite--all of which is
very much as it should be, I know. I thought for a while Mary liked Dr.
Clay pretty well, but I know it is not serious, for she talks quite
freely of him. She is very grateful to him for helping her so often
with her father. But those gray-eyed Scotch people never talk of what
is nearest the heart. I wonder if he knows that Mary Barner is a queen
among women. I don't like Scotchmen. They take too much for granted.