when they had all answered, “Ho, yes, certingly,” the barefaced minx said, “Here’s hold missus! and hopen has how her trip hup the Rhind will keep her a good month longer at Gravesend.” And then, after a general titter, I could hear them all getting up from their chairs, and saying one after another, “Here’s hold missus!” and sure enough here’s hold missus it was, for in I bounced among them just at that moment, and then it was—“Oh dear, who would have thought it,”—and there was such a scene, no one can tell. Off fainted that under housemaid, right into the arms of Mr. Roberts, and down went my glasses and decanters out of Mr. “Heddard’s” hands, who endeavoured to hide himself under the table, and then over it went; for up jumped Mrs. Fisher from her chair, upsetting my best china tea set in her alarm, while some hid themselves behind the door, and others behind the satin damask ottomans. Then away they all slunk, first one and then another, whilst I was giving it to that Mrs. Fisher, who had got her front fresh baked for the grand occasion. And when I’d given her notice to quit, I went down into the kitchen, and did the same to every one of them there, telling them they need none of them expect any character from me.
On Mr. Edward’s arrival, which was just upon a fortnight afterwards, I felt it my duty, of course, to let him know all that had occurred, and what I had done; but my fine gentleman didn’t say a word, and only walked whistling up and down the room; and when I told him that I couldn’t make out what had come to servants now-a-days, for that, do what I would, I could not get a good one, he had the impudence to turn round and say, “No; and you never will, as long as you live, Madam.”
“And why shouldn’t I, Mr. Clever?” I inquired.
“Because, Mam, good mistresses make good servants.”
“Well, indeed!” I answered, “I do admire that. I should rather think it was just the very reverse, and that good servants made good mistresses. I suppose, then, you mean to say that I am not fit to have the management of my own house!”
“I do, Caroline. Ah, you may stare; but management, as you call it, or government, as I term it, is not quite so easy a science as you seem to imagine. Every family is in itself a little kingdom, and it requires almost as much knowledge to rule wisely in the one as in the other.”
“Very pretty!” I said. “Pray go on; perhaps you will tell me how I am to govern, as you call it?”
“Why, madam, there are but two ways. Human nature can only be ruled through its love or through its fears. The one leads our fellow-creatures to serve us as willing friends, the other forces them to serve us as unwilling slaves. It is for you and other mistresses to choose between the two—remembering that it is the natural disposition of kindness to beget kindness, and of tyranny to beget rebellion?”
“Oh, indeed!” I replied. “Then I suppose you would like your system of kindness carried out in the kitchen? and nicely they’d treat you for it!”
“Indeed, I think not. At any rate, the stake is so little that it is worth the risk; and I, for one, have such faith in the power of kindness, combined with firmness, that though I don’t mean to say but that you might occasionally meet with ingratitude, still that would merely be the exception that proves the rule. The heart has been so wonderfully constructed that it has not been left to us to choose whether we would be thankful or not for benefits received; but gratitude has been, made an animal instinct. The very dog likes the hand that fosters it, and I do not think servants worse than dogs—though you and many other ladies I know seem to do so. Do you not expect from your domestics that they should consider your interest theirs, and yet you forget that the first step in the process is to make their happiness yours. How did they manage in the olden time? There was none of this hubbub about bad servants then, and none of this continual changing and changing; but the old servant’s son grew, like his father, to be grey in the service of the same family. And why was this? Because he was looked upon, and treated, and loved like one of the family.