A NEW SITUATION
"ARE you the new servant? If you are, mother says you're to go down to
the kitchen, and wash up the things. My sister is ill, and the doctor
is coming presently."
The speaker was the elder boy of the group of children she had seen
before, and this was Fanny's introduction to her new situation.
The boy who had helped her to carry her box set it down in the passage
and went away; while a feeling of forlornness began to creep over Fanny
as she followed the little boy down to the kitchen.
When they reached the door, she paused for a moment.
"Is this the kitchen?" she asked, almost aghast at the sight of the
dirty, comfortless room, that seemed to be filled with dirty cups and
plates from end to end. Even the single wooden chair, that stood near
the table, was piled high, like the table and dresser, with dirty
crockery, and a vision of Mrs. Lloyd's cosy little kitchen rose in
contrast.
"What are you staring at?" asked the little boy. "Jane ran away the
other morning, so there's been nobody to wash up the tea-things and
dinner-things."
It occurred to Fanny that she had better follow the example of her
predecessor, and run away too; but she knew now that her situation at
Mrs. Lloyd's was filled, and the thought of ten pounds a year made her
willing to put up with some discomfort.
After a silent look round the room, she slowly took off her hat, and
when the boy was turning away, she said—
"Wait a minute; you must show me where to find things, if I am to clear
up this muddle."
A fire was lighted in the choked-up grate, for the first thing, and a
kettle of water put on to boil, and when the little boy had told her
where various things were kept, and had left her to find out what she
could for herself, she commenced her task by taking off her afternoon
frock, and putting on the one she had worn in the morning, and a large
coarse apron over it, for the kitchen did not look as though it had
been cleaned for a month, and dresser, cupboards, and table looked
equally dirty.
At first, Fanny felt disposed to sit down and cry, but as the fire
burned up, the kitchen began to look more cheerful, and with all her
faults, Fanny was not afraid of hard work, and so she was soon sorting
and separating cups and saucers from plates and dishes, and had more
water on the fire to get hot, for she could do nothing without plenty
of hot water.
No one came near her for nearly an hour. The children seemed very
quiet, and she supposed Mrs. Lewis was upstairs with the little girl
who was ill; so she set about her task of clearing up, and was nearly
half done when her new mistress came into the kitchen.
"Come, make haste, Mary, I want the supper things set as soon as
possible," she said.
"My name is Fanny," said the new servant.
"Well, we have been used to call the girls 'Mary' until the last, and
she would be called Jane."
"I should like to be called by my own name, too," said Fanny; but the
lady said that "Mary" was a much more convenient name, and so Fanny had
to accept it.
She could not wash up all the dirty crockery, but as soon as she had
done plates enough for the supper-table, she had to go upstairs and lay
the cloth. Most of the children sat down to that meal, as well as her
master and mistress, so that by the time that was cleared away, Fanny
was tired with running up and down stairs, and had apparently made very
little progress with clearing up the kitchen.
Ten o'clock had been the hour for going to bed at Mrs. Lloyd's; but
apparently there was no such rule here, for after the clock had struck
eleven, her new mistress told her to clear up all the rest of the dirty
things, and put them away, before she went to bed; and that she must
get up at six the next morning to get all the boots and shoes cleaned
before breakfast, and the dining-room swept and dusted.
Fanny answered, "Yes, ma'am;" but it was easy to see that she already
began to think she might have to pay too dearly for her increased
wages, and by the time she got to bed, she was so tired that she cried
herself to sleep.
By the end of the next day she had made up her mind that she would not
stay more than a month, for Mrs. Lewis did not seem to understand how
to manage either household or children; and now that one of them was
ill, Fanny was kept running up and down stairs to the neglect of her
other work, and was then scolded because it was not done.
Coming from a well-ordered household like Mrs. Lloyd's, it seemed to
Fanny that everything went haphazard here, and mistress and maid alike
seemed to be always struggling to overtake the work that needed doing,
and yet never succeeded.
Mrs. Lewis was never a good manager, but now that she had her little
daughter to nurse, matters were a good deal worse, and poor Fanny was
so tired before bedtime came that she hardly knew how to drag one foot
before the other.
It came to be a regular thing that she should cry herself to sleep
every night, and oversleep herself in the morning.
Then, when the child got worse, and Fanny heard some one say it was
scarlet fever, she could scarcely snatch time to have a meal in peace,
for there was no time to sit down. When a meal was given to her, she
took it to the kitchen and had a mouthful as she could snatch it, while
washing up or getting something ready to take upstairs.
One day when she took up something to the sick-room, Mrs. Lewis gave
her an apron full of odds and ends, and told her to put them on the
kitchen fire; but the sight of a pink silk scarf, scarcely soiled, made
Fanny decide to look then; over before she burned them, and when she
did so, the pretty scarf and one or two pieces of ribbon were selected
as being too good to throw away, and Fanny put them into her pocket.
At the end of a fortnight Fanny told her mistress that she would like
to leave at the end of the month, as the work was too much for her.
Mrs. Lewis looked at her for a moment in silence, and then actually
burst into tears.
"What am I to do if you leave me just now? Nobody else will come, with
scarlet fever in the house."
"Is it so dangerous?" said Fanny, in a sudden fright.
"People are silly enough to be frightened of it," said the lady, "and
so I hope you will stay with me until it is all over, and then I will
make you a present for the extra work you have had, as well as give you
a good holiday."
Fanny considered the matter for a minute, and then consented, though
she heaved a sigh as she did so, for she was growing very tired of the
hard drudgery of her work day after day, without any relaxation.
Since the little girl had been so very ill, Fanny had not been able to
go out even on Sunday evening. Only when sent on an errand occasionally
was there a chance of losing sight and sound of the constant work and
worry.
She had been there three weeks, and began to wish that she had not
consented to stay beyond the month, when one morning she woke up
unusually early, but when she got up her head ached so much that she
was obliged to lie down on the bed again.
She managed to crawl downstairs at six o'clock, and after breakfast she
felt a little better; but before she went to bed at night her throat
was sore, and she tied the pink scarf round it when she went upstairs.
The following day, when she was answering a knock at the kitchen street
door, she was startled to see the collector from Judds', as the boy who
had brought potatoes turned away.
"You didn't expect to see me, miss," he said with a grin, as Fanny
changed colour. She felt too poorly, too much upset by the sight of the
man to reply. "Judds don't like this sort of thing," he said, after a
pause. "Customers moving away and never giving us notice is against the
rules. Now for the money," he added.
"I can't pay you to-day," said Fanny, thinking of the new frock that
had been sent home the previous evening from Mrs. Scott.
"Then you know what the consequence will be, miss. I shall have to send
the inspector to call upon you," said the man.
"Very well," was all Fanny could answer, for the shock of seeing this
man, whom she thought she had escaped, for a time at least, seemed to
deprive her of all her remaining strength. She shut the door, crept
back to the kitchen, and sank down on the chair as though she was
about to faint. She sat there until she was startled by the imperative
ringing of the front-door bell. She stumbled up the stairs, and opened
the door to the doctor. He stepped in, and then paused on the mat to
look at her.
"What is the matter?" he asked. "You are ill. You have no business to
be here, my girl. Where is your mistress?" he added.
Mrs. Lewis came downstairs at the same moment. "She is better to-day,
doctor; I am sure she is better," she said, in a tone of glad
excitement.
"I am glad to hear it," said the doctor; "but we have another patient
here, I am afraid. This girl has taken the fever, and must go to bed at
once. Send her to her room, and I will see her there presently."
"Go to bed, Mary," said her mistress, in a blank, bewildered tone.
"I will come and look at you in a minute," said the doctor, speaking to
Fanny as she crept upstairs. She was thankful, indeed, to be told to go
to bed, and thought nothing of what might happen to her next, for she
was now too ill to think of anything. She had only just crept under the
bedclothes when the doctor and Mrs. Lewis came upstairs. The result of
the doctor's examination, and the talk with Mrs. Lewis that followed
was that Fanny was taken to a fever hospital a few hours later, and the
next day she was quite delirious. Fanny's things were put together in
her box, the new dress taken down from its peg and tumbled in with the
rest, and they were all taken away to be fumigated.
The doctor had remarked that Fanny was a strong, healthy girl, and
might soon be able to come back; but Mrs. Lewis had her own opinion
about this. The poor woman was so bewildered as she thought of what
she should do, now that Fanny was gone, that she entirely forgot that
the girl had friends who ought to be informed of what had happened to
her, and it was not until the following Sunday that the thought of
this occurred to her. She was doing something in the kitchen about six
o'clock, when there came a knock at the street door, and when Mrs.
Lewis opened it, Miriam stared for a moment at seeing the lady, and
then said—
"Isn't Fanny coming out to-night?" She spoke rather aggressively, for
she had been disappointed the previous Sunday.
"Oh, you mean Mary, I suppose?" said Mrs. Lewis. "Do you know where her
mother and father live?" she asked.
"Has she gone home?" exclaimed Miriam, quickly.
"No. She has gone to the hospital, and I could only give the people
this address, for she was too sleepy and stupid to tell us anything; so
you go and tell her friends that she was taken to the fever hospital
last Thursday."
Miriam nodded. "Whatever was the matter with her?" she said.
"She caught scarlet fever, but the doctor thought she would not have
it very bad," added Mrs. Lewis; and then she shut the door, without
waiting to hear any more from Miriam.
For a minute she stood still, wondering what she had better do, and
how she could let Fanny's friends know what had happened to her,
considering she knew no more of their address than that they lived at
the other end of the town. At length she remembered Mrs. Lloyd, and
thought she would be sure to know where Fanny's friends lived, and she
felt sure that she should find the lady at home, as she seldom went
out on Sunday evening. So she hurried to Mrs. Lloyd's, and, as she
expected, that lady answered the door herself.
"If you please, ma'am, can you tell me where Fanny lives?" she said
quickly.
"Fanny?" repeated the lady. "She has left my service."
"Yes, ma'am, and she's in the fever hospital, and nobody don't know
nothing about it," interrupted Miriam.
"In the hospital! But the authorities there will know where she lives,
surely!" exclaimed Mrs. Lloyd.
"No, ma'am, I've just seen the lady at Fanny's new place, and she says
Fanny was sleepy and stupid-like when they took her away, and they put
down that address, and she doesn't know where Fanny lives. She never
told her, and she never told me," concluded Miriam.
"Dear me, what is to be done, then? For I don't think she ever told me
her proper address. I know where she went to school, and I will go and
see her teacher the first thing to-morrow morning."
This did not quite please Miriam. She had often wondered where Fanny
lived, and why she had not been asked to go home to tea with her, and
supposed that her home was hardly respectable, or she would have been
invited to go there.
In reality it was Fanny's foolish pride that had made her unwilling to
let her friend know where she lived; for Miriam had made no secret of
the fact that her father was a small farmer, which sounded grand to
Fanny, who was painfully conscious of how one thing after the other had
been taken out of the home and sold to meet the expense of her father's
long illness, and as yet they could not afford to replace this parlour
furniture; but Fanny had spoken of it as though it still formed part of
her home when Miriam told of the old-fashioned blue parlour that was
seldom used, except for weddings and christenings.
Now, Miriam thought she would like to find out what sort of a house her
friend's mother did occupy, and so she said—
"I am not going to church this evening, so if you will tell me where
Fanny went to school, I will try to find her mother this evening."
But it had occurred to Mrs. Lloyd that it would be kinder to let the
school-mistress know what had happened, and ask her to break the news
to the girl's friends, rather than send a girl like Miriam to carry the
message.
So she said, "Thank you for your kind offer; but I think the friend who
recommended Fanny to me would be the best person to break this bad news
to her mother and father."
"Well, I suppose it is bad news," said Miriam. "And I heard yesterday
that scarlet fever was very much about."
"Very likely," Mrs. Lloyd replied; and then she waited for Miriam to go
away, which she was obliged to do at last, without finding out where
Mrs. Brown lived.
She went to her cousin's, and asked about Fanny's new dress.
"I took it home last Tuesday. I couldn't get yours and hers both done
on the Saturday, I told you. What are you looking at?" said Mrs. Scott,
in a tone of sudden alarm.
"Nothing. Only I wondered what would happen next," answered Miriam.
"Happen next! What do you mean? You are not going to tell me she has
left her situation and taken that lovely new dress with her."
Miriam shook her head. "She has left her situation, but I don't suppose
she has taken the new dress with her, for she has gone to the fever
hospital," she said.
"The fever hospital!" almost screamed Mrs. Scott, and retreating from
Miriam as though the talking of a fever hospital would convey the
infection. "I heard only yesterday that people were being taken to the
hospital in hundreds, that they have had to take a house outside the
town to send some of the people there because the hospital is so full.
And now that poor girl has gone there, you say."
"She's gone to the hospital! Won't they send her clothes with her,"
asked Miriam.
Her cousin shook her head. "I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry to
send that dress home," she said, with a sigh.
"I wish I knew where her mother lived, I would go and tell her all
about it," said Miriam.
"Well, I think you ought to know that," said her cousin, "and I ought
to have been told before I made that dress. I suppose I may reckon that
as lost now;" and Mrs. Scott scolded Miriam for not taking care to know
all about her friend before recommending her.
"Oh, I dare say it will be all right, and you will get the money for
the dress," said Miriam, crossly; and she bade her cousin good night in
no pleasant mood.