“Come in,” he said. And when the untidy head and somewhat neglected person of his second daughter appeared, Dr. Maybright walked towards her.
“I am going out, Polly, do you want me?” he said.
“Yes, it won’t take a minute,” said Polly, eagerly. “May I housekeep every second week instead of Nell? Will you give me the money instead of her, and let me pay for everything, and buy the food. I am awfully interested in eggs and butter, and I’ll give you splendid puddings and cakes. Please say yes, father—Nell is quite willing, if you are.”
“How old are you, Polly?” said Dr. Maybright.
He put his hand under Polly’s chin and raised her childish face to scrutinize it closely.
“What matter about my age,” she replied; “I’m fourteen in body—I’m twenty in mind—and as to housekeeping, I’m thirty, if not forty.”
“That head looks very like thirty, if not forty,” responded the Doctor significantly. “And that dress,” glancing at where the hem was torn, and where the body gaped open for want of sufficient hooks, “looks just the costume I should recommend for the matron of a large establishment. Do you know what it means to housekeep for this family, Polly?”
“Buy the bread and butter, and the meat, and the poultry, and the tea, and the sugar, and the citron, and raisins, and allspice, and nutmegs, and currants, and flour, and brick-bat, and hearthstone, and—and——”
Dr. Maybright put his fingers to his ears. “Spare me any more,” said he, “I never ask for items. There are in this house, Polly, nine children, myself, and four servants. That makes in all fourteen people. These people have to be fed and clothed, and some of them have to be paid wages too; they have to be warmed, they have to be kept clean, in short, all their comforts of body have to be attended to; one of them requires one thing, one quite another. For instance, the dinner which would be admirably suited to you would kill baby, and might not be best for Firefly, who is not strong, and has to be dieted in a particular way. I make it a rule that servants’ wages and all articles consumed in the house are paid for weekly. Whoever housekeeps for me has to undertake all this, and has to make a certain sum of money cover a certain expenditure. Now do you think, Polly—do you honestly think—that you, an ignorant little girl of fourteen, a very untidy and childish little girl, can undertake this onerous post? I ask you to answer me quite honestly—if you undertake it, are you in the least likely to succeed?”
“Oh, father, I know you mean to crush me when you speak like that; but you know you told Helen that you would like her to try to manage the housekeeping.”