A housekeeper's assistant looked with infinite scorn upon a
kitchen maid, and there had to be no less than four dining rooms for
the various classes of servants who would not eat at the same table.
All this was very puzzling to the stranger; but after a while he came
to see how the system had grown up. It was just like a court; and the
privileged beings who waited upon the sovereign necessarily were
esteemed according to the importance of the service they performed for
him and the access which they attained to his person.
A good many of these servants were foreigners, and Samuel was pained
to discover that they were for the most part without any ennobling
conception of their calling. They were much given to gluttony and
drinking; and there was an unthinkable amount of scandal and
backbiting and jealousy. But it was only by degrees that he realized
this, for he had one great motive in common with them--they were all
possessed with a sense of the greatness of the Lockmans, and none of
them wanted anything better than to talk for hours about the family
and its wealth and power, and the habits and tastes of its members and
their friends.
It was Katie Reilly, a bright little Irish damsel, the housekeeper's
sewing girl, who first captured Samuel with her smile; she carried him
off for a walk, in spite of the efforts of the second parlor maid, and
Samuel drank up eagerly the stream of gossip which poured from her
lips.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93