Selection of china and glass is another important matter. A cup of one pattern set in a saucer of another pattern is an offence to the invalid’s eye, and to let a person suffering with pain put to his lips a glass with a piece chipped out of the edge is a cruelty.
In the service offered to an invalid the same
is true as of all other service. If it be done by rule and method, as if by the working of machinery that has no heart in it, it will fall far short of what it might easily be made by a little care and thoughtfulness. If, for instance, a chop—which it is well understood the patient must eat plain—be served with a little bunch of cress, the fresh green feeds the eye, and the invalid is conscious that thought has been given to her pleasure as well as to her needs. A whole train of sad and weary thoughts has been changed by one cheerful yellow pansy hastily dropped on a tray so that it lay smiling between a cup and a cream jug.
A waitress who cares how she does her work in the sick-room and out of it will soon find that the attention she gives is appreciated. It will not be long before china closets which have been locked will be opened, old glass will be brought out for occasional use, and great pleasure expressed by its owners that it is again possible to have it handled without fear of its being destroyed. This
care bestowed upon inanimate things is one indication of a truthful character, and the waitress will find herself treated, not like one who must be watched and in a sense suspected, but with the confidence which is her right, and which will give her the sense of being an individual, not merely part of the household machinery.
When confidence in her is once established there are many ways by which it will be expressed. She will be asked to execute little commissions given only to one who can be thoroughly relied upon. She may be left in charge of the house, with the direction of other workers under her, or she may be asked to go to the country-house to direct and assist in its arrangement before the family take up their summer residence there.
All this will give variety to what otherwise might be in danger of becoming a trifle monotonous; but it is not the variety which is the greatest advantage. It is the fact that she is not a mere worker, not a machine which
may do its work with absolute exactness, never losing a minute, and always being in its own place. She will do her work with exactness, and may be relied upon like a machine; but she will also use her power to help, to suggest, and to put in motion forces outside of herself and her routine.
When the best relationship has been established between employers and those who are employed, the question of change will assume a very different aspect. Questions which ordinarily make an end of any contract entered into will be simply the subject of explanation, or at the most of arbitration, and although others may come and go, the waitress will stay on year after year.
When she does decide to go she will leave with regret what has been to her really a home, and, on the part of her employer, the most genuine regret will be felt and expressed. Great interest will be taken in all that concerns her future welfare, gifts will be prepared by each member of the household,