“What do you propose to have done with all these rooms?” asked some one.
Salome looked over to John Villard and smiled.
“I’ve read and studied ‘All Sorts and Conditions of Men’ to some purpose,” she said; “I propose, as time goes on, to have various practical and useful things taught the girls here. Dressmaking for instance, and millinery and domestic science. The conveniences for that, though, are in the basement.”
She led the way by a flight of stairs that led from a side-entrance, at the end of the wing, to the basement. There was a spacious hall with rows of hooks to hang garments on. From this, opened a large and pleasant dining-room. Under the main portion of the building was a great kitchen with ranges and all the modern appliances of a hotel kitchen, though on a smaller scale.
“Isn’t this rather elaborate for a factory boarding-house?” asked Burnham; “for, I take it, that is one of your objects, at least, if not the primary one.”
“I approve of this,” said Mrs. Soule judicially. “It’s poor policy to fit out a kitchen with cheap stuff. Give servants the best of everything to do with, and teach them how to take care of them.”
“Miss Shepard has gone over the subject very carefully,” said Mr. Fales, “and, I must say, has shown most excellent judgment in everything. As you say, madam, it’s only money wasted to put cheap stuff into a building like this.”
“Now, look through the pantries and larder and laundry,” Salome interrupted; “I think, for a woman who knows absolutely nothing of the details of housekeeping, I’ve excelled myself.” She spoke boastfully and shook her head at Marion, at the close of her speech.
“How much of it did Miss Shaw plan?” slyly asked Geoffrey Burnham.
“Every bit of it, below the main floor,” responded Salome. “Since you seem incapable of believing that I did it, I may as well own that Marion and Mr. Fales planned the whole of the basement, and that I, in my ignorance, could only look on and admire. But they did so well that now I am inclined to take all the glory to myself.”