"Yes: if all ladies were like her!" said Agnes.
"It is not all the fault of the ladies," returned Letty. "I believe a great many employers would be glad to do all in their power for those who work for them. But suppose a girl takes up the common idea that her mistress has no business with her after her work is done,—that she has a right to go where she pleases, and associate with whom she likes, and give an account of herself to nobody: what can her mistress do? That is the trouble with most of the young girls who go wrong. They set up for independence and will not submit to be guided by anybody.
"Do you remember Jenny Green, who lived at the Daltons'? She was in our Sunday-school class a while. Miss Dalton took her in, more from charity than any thing else, because she had actually no place to which to go. She did pretty well till she fell in with Cornelia Beadle, who lived with Mrs. Garland. Cornelia was a bold, impudent thing, who cared for nobody. She led Jenny into going out at night and staying late, and persuaded her that it was a fine thing to be independent, and Miss Dalton had no right to restrain her.
"Of course she fell into undesirable company; and the end of it was that she and Cornelia went off to the Springs with two young men, and were gone all night and all day. Miss Dalton tried all ways to reclaim her, but it was of no use; and the end of the matter was that Jenny died in the poor-house hospital, a poor, abandoned wretch. You see, as long as ladies have no power over those they employ, they cannot be accountable for them. What teacher would undertake to be responsible for a child whom he was not allowed to control?"
"I suppose that is one reason why so many girls prefer sewing or working at trades to living in families," said Agnes. "They like to be independent. A good many women earn a poor and precarious living in that way, who might have good wages and comfortable homes in respectable families. I believe, as you say, that the idea of independence and freedom from control leads away more girls than almost any thing else."
"It leads away a great many: I have no doubt of that," said Letty. "In the very nature of things, young girls cannot know, and ought not to know, the nature of the restrictions laid upon them. They ought to be willing to take them upon trust. But, instead of doing so, they make up their minds that all these restraints are unjust and tyrannical, and go on their own wilful way, till they are led to take some step which ruins their character forever. I don't suppose Jenny had the least idea what she was doing when she went away to the Springs in that fashion. She only thought it would be a fine thing to have frolic and do as she liked.
"Mrs. Trescott made it an absolute condition with all her girls that they should be accountable to her for all their comings and goings. She always said she would not have a young person in her house upon any other terms,—whether it were a young lady in the parlour or a domestic in the kitchen."
"She is a good woman," said Agnes. "It would have been much better for me if I had fallen into such hands. I remember very well how mother and I used to fret about your living out, and how mother used to tell every one that you only did sewing and taught the children. I remember, too, how distressed we were when you went into the kitchen to work."
"It was an excellent thing for me," remarked Letty. "If I had a dozen girls, they should all be taught to work."
"Have you begun in that way with Una?" asked Agnes.