"A girl like that! as a domestic servant! Mother, it's a disgraceful shame!"
"The disgrace is in the language you permit yourself to use to me. Your travels have made you rather boisterous and gauche. What disgrace can there be in honest work? Household work is honourable, and was once occupation for the daughters of kings. Happily the world grows more sensible. I look to the day as not far distant when the wide-spread employment of lady-helps will solve that terrible problem—the redundancy of girls."
"My cousin will not continue redundant, I feel sure."
"She is not your cousin."
"Whether or no, she should be spared the degradation you propose. She is a girl of culture, highly educated. You cannot condemn her to the kitchen."
"The lady-helps have their own apartment; but I decline to justify myself."
And Mrs. Purling lapsed into silence. There was friction between them already.
"Where are you going?" she asked, when lunch was over.
"To the housekeeper's room."
"Harold, I forbid you. It's highly improper—it's absolutely indelicate."