Chapter I: Leading-Strings

"IF we are servants, we are not slaves that I know of. I would not stay in the best place under the sun if I must be kept in leading-strings like a baby, and never be allowed out of the mistress's sight. Come along with me, Kate. I am going to leave, so I have no call to care what she says."

"But I am not, and I don't think I want to leave. Mrs. Bateson is very particular, but she means it for our good. It is not every mistress that would take the trouble she does, and it is no benefit to her."

"Isn't it? You may think so; but it is because you know no better, you little simpleton. Isn't it to the mistress's benefit to have us always within call? She gets more work out of us than the wages are worth. I shall be glad to turn my back on this place when Wednesday comes."

The speakers were the upper and under housemaids in a large country house. The elder of the two, who held the higher post, was a clever, capable young woman, but with a strong will, quick temper, and very decided views about her "rights" and the work belonging to her place. She had only been three months in it, and had given notice to leave, because she found the rules of the house too strict to suit her taste, especially as regarded the keeping of the Sabbath.

Mrs. Bateson was very particular in this respect. But if Fanny Ellis had only given the matter reasonable thought, she would have owned that the children of the household and the servants were bound by the same rules. Every member of the family who was in health, and not compelled to remain at home for the performance of domestic duties, was expected to occupy her seat in the house of God at least once on Sunday. There was but a single place of worship within walking distance, so that masters and servants met together under the same roof, and were near each other.

Fanny Ellis was one of the first to rebel against this rule, though she had agreed to it when she took the place of upper housemaid.

More than once her seat at church had been empty, and she had made various excuses for her absence. Next, she boldly declared that servants had little enough time for rest, or a walk in the fresh air, and that so long as her work was well done and up to hours, she meant to call her Sundays her own, and spend her "turn out" as she pleased.

Mrs. Bateson did not wish to part with the girl, but she could not allow her authority to be set at nought. At first she spoke gently to Fanny, reminded her that the Sabbath was God's day, but given for the refreshment of the soul as well as for the rest of the body, and that we should value the opportunity of going to His house as a blessed privilege, not an irksome task to be forced upon us by some one else.

"I give you the same opportunity as my own children have," she added. "You may be sure I wish to do well for them, and the fact that I am particular for you also should show that I wish you to do what is for your own good, not for any benefit to myself."

Fanny listened, but said nothing in reply, and soon after again broke the rule.

"If this should happen a third time, Fanny, I must give you notice to leave. I cannot keep any servant who sets our rules at defiance."

"I will give you a month's notice and save you the trouble," returned the girl, pertly. "The rules don't suit me. They may do in an infant school, but not for grown-up people in a free country. I'll do my work well while I stay, and I hope you will give me a character for that. I don't expect you will be asked to say how often I go to church." And Fanny, with a toss of the head, and without waiting for an answer, flounced out of her mistress's presence.

"Poor girl!" said Mrs. Bateson to herself. "I wish I could make her understand how truly I desire her good. I do hope she will be contented with throwing up her own place, without unsettling the others, especially Kate."

This was exactly what Fanny would not do. She aired her views on the subject of tyrannical mistresses and the slavery of service under such, on every possible occasion. But most of her fellow-servants knew too well the value of their places to be affected by what she said or to agree with it.

Kate Evans was younger, weaker and more easily led. Moreover, she was a little bit giddy, had a pretty face, and liked to show it elsewhere than in the servants' pew at church, "where," said Fanny, "if you look up, the mistress's eye is down on you in a minute."

Fanny was mistaken. Mrs. Bateson went to the house of God to worship, not to watch other people. She knew, too, how likely it was that the young would feel annoyed at the thought of her doing so, and she carefully avoided it.

After Fanny had given notice, she only went once to church. "I shall go for a walk instead," she said. "I will do my work so as nobody can find fault, but I have cut the leading-strings, and I will take care they are not tied again."

On the second Sunday, she urged Kate to accompany her. The weak girl yielded to persuasion and ridicule combined, but she was not happy. She dreaded the consequences of her disobedience, and was angry at herself for having been laughed into doing what conscience told her was wrong.

Kate could not forget that Mrs. Bateson had taken her from a poor home and a widowed mother who know not how to get bread for a number of younger children. She had been very ignorant when she came three years ago, and her mistress had taught her all she knew, and had been very patient with her carelessness, mistakes, and forgetfulness. She had given her better wages than she deserved at first in order to relieve the poor mother of all anxiety about her daughter's wardrobe. She had shown her how to spend her money to the best advantage, and allowed her maid to teach her how to cut out and make her clothes and economise the materials.

No one would have known the Kate Evans of to-day to be the same as the slatternly, ignorant girl who came from a poor home three years ago. She was worth her wages now, there was no doubt about it. But who had made her so? To whom did she owe it that she was well up with her duties, and that any mistress might be attracted by her smart, tidy appearance, if she were in want of a place?

Kate's conscience answered, "To Mrs. Bateson."

She could not forget that this lady had been alike her friend and her mistress, and that to treat her with disrespect and disobedience would be the grossest ingratitude. Yet she allowed herself to be laughed and taunted into both.

The first time this occurred, Mrs. Bateson spoke to Kate with more of sorrow than anger. She knew that the girl was young and weak, and would be as easily led in the wrong direction as she had hitherto been in the right. In Fanny's hands, she would be pliant as wax.

So the lady spoke kindly, told Kate all that she felt about her intercourse with the other servant, and advised her not to be induced to do wrong by a companion who could not have the same interest in her welfare as her own good mother had.

"You know, Kate," she said, "how anxious your mother is that you should be kept from wrong company, and that you should become a true child of God. I have hoped much for you, and rejoiced in your improvement, and I do not wish to be hard with you. I forgive this one act of direct disobedience, because you have been misled. But, remember, I must not allow you to repeat it without feeling the consequences, and if you again break the rules of the household, I must give you notice to leave."

Kate cried, promised that she would not offend again, and felt all the more determined to keep her word, because Mrs. Bateson had not reminded her of benefits conferred in the past. It was all for her own sake, and for her mother's, and Kate's conscience confirmed every word that her mistress had said.