The moment he opened the door, fifteen of them charged tumultuously into
the passage, sweeping him completely off his legs. Once inside, these
fifteen faced round, fought the other thirty-five or so back on to the
doorstep, and slammed the door in their faces. Then they picked up the
master of the house, and asked him politely to conduct them to "A. B."
At first, owing to the clamour of the mob outside, who were hammering at
the door and shouting curses through the keyhole, he could understand
nothing, but at length they succeeded in explaining to him that they were
domestic servants come ill answer to his wife's advertisement. The man
went and told his wife, and his wife said she would see them, one at a
time.
Which one should have audience first was a delicate question to decide.
The man, on being appealed to, said he would prefer to leave it to them.
They accordingly discussed the matter among themselves. At the end of a
quarter of an hour, the victor, having borrowed some hair-pins and a
looking-glass from our char-woman, who had slept in the house, went
upstairs, while the remaining fourteen sat down in the hall, and fanned
themselves with their bonnets.
"A. B." was a good deal astonished when the first applicant presented
herself. She was a tall, genteel-looking girl.
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