“So do I, yet it is just what we all do more or less without any distinct benefit. Of course no reasonable person would expect a girl to remain at the low wages when she became worth more.”
“That’s just what I was thinking, Molly. You will make Marta worth a good deal more than $10 a month as wages go.”
“I know it, but I shall be content to give her $12 when she can do my work with only superintendence on my part, and later on I shall expect her to ask me $14; and I shall have to decide to give it, or take some one else; yet, if she does her best till then I shall not feel ill used, things being as they are. We can’t expect a young woman like Marta to be better than her times.”
“Still, this comes back to the same point; you have a good deal to do.”
“Yes, but what better employment can I have? We live about as comfortably as if we kept two servants, because I do much of the lighter work; I have no drudgery. Marta does that. I have very few social duties. I have plenty of time to read and do my little sewing and we live as I like to live; I should not be so happy any other way. When I have children I shall have less time, but I expect Marta will be able to go on pretty well with an hour of my time in the kitchen.”
“But suppose Marta wants to leave?”
“I don’t think she will. She seems to have the European horror of changing and, I think, believes herself part of the family. If I am mistaken I shall be unfortunate, but my altering my policy now would not change matters. I made up my mind to expect very little beyond hand work from one servant; that I have got.”
They chatted till Harry came home, Mrs. Welles unable to make up her mind whether Molly’s ideas were wise or foolish; as ideas they were good, of course, but how would they work in practice? Mrs. Welles was too English to understand why a woman should make up her mind to put up with half service, and she had been too well off since she had been married to have learnt by experience.