He
proved to her that an immense saving in time and labour, to say nothing
of coals, could be effected by the adoption of the Crim Tartary system;
and he taught it to her then and there, and she went straight downstairs
and explained it to the girl.
Amenda, our then "general," was an extremely stolid young person, and, in
some respects, a model servant. She never argued. She never seemed to
have any notions of her own whatever. She accepted our ideas without
comment, and carried them out with such pedantic precision and such
evident absence of all feeling of responsibility concerning the result as
to surround our home legislation with quite a military atmosphere.
On the present occasion she stood quietly by while the MacShaughnassy
method of fire-laying was expounded to her. When Ethelbertha had
finished she simply said:--
"You want me to lay the fires like that?"
"Yes, Amenda, we'll always have the fires laid like that in future, if
you please."
"All right, mum," replied Amenda, with perfect unconcern, and there the
matter ended, for that evening.
On coming downstairs the next morning we found the breakfast table spread
very nicely, but there was no breakfast. We waited. Ten minutes went
by--a quarter of an hour--twenty minutes. Then Ethelbertha rang the
bell.
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