[THE HOUSE WITH THE VERANDAH.]
By ISABELLA FYVIE MAYO, Author of “Other People’s Stairs,” “Her Object in Life,” etc.
CHAPTER XII.
KITCHEN COURTSHIPS.
ucy secured “a girl” at last. The girl called herself “a girl,” the registry office keeper called her “a girl,” and Lucy said within herself that she could not very well call her anything else. What else was she? She had not the appearance or manner of the trained servant. She gave no sign of the habits or nature which Lucy would have rejoiced over in “a maid.” She was “a girl,” ready to do work for a wage. She was but a bundle of negations. Yet Lucy felt bound to take her, not only because time pressed, but because there was really no reason why she should reject her.
The girl gave “a reference” to a house not very far from Pelham Street. She had been servant there for two years. So Lucy locked up the little house with the verandah, took Hugh by the hand, and went off to inquire “the character” of “Jane Smith.”
The house at which her journey ended was dismally dim and genteel. It was not dirty or neglected, but it was not bright nor cared for. Jane Smith herself opened the door. It was the last day of her “notice” month.
The lady who received Mrs. Challoner was a limp faded personage who listened to Lucy’s errand with such unsmiling weariness that Lucy felt quite sorry to have disturbed her.