"Please, ma'am, we call 'er 'Susie' at 'ome," said her mother when Marion went to engage her, but the Orlingburys thought the name "Abigail" such a delicious one for a little housemaid that they insisted on using it, and Abigail grinned delightedly.
Ada and Marion had provided her with neat print dresses and good serviceable aprons, and Jenny had prevailed upon her to put back the larger portion of a very unbecoming fringe, and had even managed to get her to do her hair so that it did not stick out in tufts.
When Abigail had got to work, Marion did her marketing, bringing most of the things back with her in a wonderful marketing-basket, and then she went to her kitchen. This, as we have said, was a little room on the floor above the sitting-room. Just outside was a housemaid's sink, which was very useful, as Marion had no scullery. A nice gas-stove had been fitted up on the "penny-in-the-slot" system which the gas company did free of cost, and by this all the cooking was done. Gas for five hours could be had by putting in a penny; if it was not wanted for five hours right off, the rest of the same pennyworth could be used next time cooking was to be done. This arrangement was very economical and formed their only gas bill, for they used a lamp in their sitting-room and candles in the bed-rooms. The gas bill was under a shilling a week.
Two shelves went all round the walls, one above the other, with nails in the edge for hanging jugs, measures, the dredger, and the grater. The shelves served instead of a dresser. A very small kitchen table stood just by the window, with two drawers in it. In one of these the tea and glass cloths in use were kept, and in the other the knives and forks.
The iron and wooden spoons used in cooking were kept in a box on the shelves. By its side the paste-board and rolling-pin might be seen, the latter a good straight thick one that rolled very evenly. The dripping-tins, baking-tins, baking-sheet, and meat-rack were on the shelves as well, and also the small dinner-service of which the establishment boasted.
Under the shelves on one side was a cupboard, which Marion now proceeded to unlock. On the top shelf of this was a row of coloured tins, containing tea, coffee, brown sugar, loaf sugar, rice, lentils, tapioca, and sultanas, several jars of jam (which had been sent them from the country), a packet of corn-flour, and a few other things. On the lower shelf were kept all cleaning materials, soap, soda, sand, emery, and house-flannel, and a spare scrubbing-brush.
Fortunately there was a cupboard under the stairs in which the housemaid's box with its blacking-brushes and the zinc pail and pan used for scrubbing and washing up could be kept. And on this cupboard Marion kept an sharp eye, and saw that it was kept very clean and the zinc pans well rinsed with hot water and soda after being used to prevent their getting greasy. The six enamel saucepans of varying sizes stood on a tripod stand in one corner.
The fittings up of the little kitchen were all new when the three friends started housekeeping, and it was economically managed, as the following account will show—
| £ | s. | d. | |
| Two small enamel saucepans at 8½d. and 6½d. | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Two medium ditto at 1s. 2d. and 1s. 4d. | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Two enamel stewpans at 1s. 9d. and 2s. | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| One paste-board | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| One rolling-pin | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| One dripping-tin | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| One dripping-tin with meat-rack | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| One baking-sheet | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Three pint pie-dishes at 3¾d. | 0 | 0 | 11¼ |
| Two large basins at 6½d. | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Three pudding-basins at 2d., 4d. and 6d. | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Three wooden spoons at 1d. | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Three iron spoons | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Flour dredger | 0 | 0 | 8½ |
| Fine wire sieve | 0 | 1 | 9½ |
| Enamel omelette-pan | 0 | 0 | 6½ |
| Small iron frying-pan | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Enamel pint and half-pint measures, 4½d. and 6½d. | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Three jugs, quart, one and a half pints, and pint (to hold) | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Weights and scales | 0 | 14 | 6 |
| Set of skewers | 0 | 0 | 4½ |
| Tin fish-kettle | 0 | 8 | 6 |
| £2 | 6 | 0¼ | |
The pretty dinner-service that they used belonged to the Orlingburys, and the tea-service was Marion's. The tea-service and the tumblers and wine-glasses were kept in a cupboard in the sitting-room. The house-linen was kept in a cupboard on the landing outside the Orlingburys' bed-room. A good deal of it they had brought with them and the rest had been lent to the establishment by Mrs. Thomas, Marion's mother.