V FEBRUARY 191 



Swiss nurserymaid, and reproached her for leaving her 

 to go to another situation with slightly higher wages. 

 The girl put out her hands, shrugged her little shoulders, 

 and said : ' Mon Dieu ! madame, que voulez-vous ? J'ai 

 quitte ma mere pour cela ! ' How true it was ! And not 

 only her mother, but her green Swiss valley, with the 

 beautiful sunlit mountains all round to live in London 

 with its smoke and its darkness ! My friend was con- 

 vinced, and said no more. 



Servants stick very closely to what they consider their 

 own duty, but I have never found servants object to any- 

 thing if told of it beforehand. They do not like unexpected 

 duties sprung upon them, and this is merely a safe rule 

 for their own protection. But the mistress of a house must 

 reserve to herself the right to ask a servant to do any- 

 thing, and if the refusal is at all impertinent there is 

 nothing for it but to part. There is reason, too, for this 

 irritating attitude of servants declaring they will not do 

 work they have not been engaged to do. The common- 

 sense of the matter protects them from each other, as 

 one masterful, selfish servant would get all her work 

 done for her by another (as boys get their lessons done at 

 school), if public opinion amongst themselves were not 

 strongly against such a shuffling of duties. 



Servants almost always behave admirably when their 

 common humanity is affected. At times of sorrow or joy, 

 births and deaths, or any sudden change and loss of 

 fortune, they are shaken out of their attitude of habitual 

 selfishness. But as time goes on they resent the position 

 being different from what they undertook when engaged, 

 and think it better to make a change. 



One of the things that seems a remnant of other days, 

 and strikes servants themselves as being particularly 

 tyrannical, is being expected to attend family prayers, 

 whether they like it or not, and that, too, in the midst of 



