"Is the Master's wife Head Matron here?"
"Yes."
"Then why does she not come and teach me to manage my department, and
see that I do my duty? I go to you, and you tell me the other matrons
know. I go to them, and they tell me so many conflicting things that I
am bothered more than helped. Then if I ask some of them one thing, they
wish to manage the whole, and come in, and give orders that produce such
an effect that I am obliged to give others to countermand them. They
give them in such a way, too, that my women are all stirred up, and it
takes me a long time to get them settled down again. This morning, one
of them told Mrs. Martin that she needn't come in here putting on airs,
and giving off orders, when she was no better than the rest of them. I
pretended not to hear it, for I really thought she provoked the answer.
If there is a Head Matron, she ought to come to my rescue."
"The Master's wife is Supervisor," said the good-natured fellow, after
thinking a few moments. He was anxious to make it right on her part.