Again: "Blood will tell, always supposin' you 'ave it, and will excuse the expression."
Thus did Mrs Bowldler "turn her necessity to glorious gain," colouring and enlarging her sphere of service under the prismatic lens of romance. In her conversation either cottage became a "residence," and its small garden "the grounds," thus:—
"Palmerston, inform Captain Hunken that dinner is served. You will find him in the grounds."
Or, "Where's that boy?" Captain Cai might ask.
"Palmerston, sir? He is at present in the adjacent, cleaning the knives and forks."
She had indeed set this high standard of expression in the very act of taking service; when, being asked what wages she demanded, she answered, "If acceptable to you, sir, I would intimate eighteen guineas—and my viands."
"That's two shilling short o' nineteen pound," said Captain Hunken.
"I thank you, sir"—Mrs Bowldler made obeisance—"but I have an attachment to guineas."
She identified herself with her employers by speaking of them in the first person plural: "No, we do not dress for dinner. Our rule is to dine in the middle of the day, as more agreeable to health." [A sigh.] "Sometimes I wish we could persuade ourselves that vegetables look better on the side-table."
Such was Mrs Bowldler: and her housekeeping, no less vigilant than romantic, protected our two friends from a thousand small domestic cares.