CHAPTER XXXIII.
TOWN VERSUS COUNTRY—THE SERVANT QUESTION.
It was with a heart full of happy content that Molly started to meet Mrs. Welles, and when the train slowed into the depot, she saw a well-known head, with bright chestnut hair, leaning out of the window.
The next moment they were exchanging greetings like two gay school-girls, for they were both warm-hearted, impetuous women, and apt to be rather regardless of bystanders and appearances.
“Dear girl, you look so well,” said her friend, holding her off a minute to look at her. “I see Harry is not killing you with kindness, as I used to predict he would.”
“And you, too, look well, notwithstanding the hotel life you abhor so. Where is your trunk?”
“I had it expressed to your house from the hotel. It saves all bother, and I knew you and I would enjoy the walk home together, as you are so near the station.”
And enjoy it they did, as only women who have known each other in girlhood and made plans and dreamed dreams together can. The village street was as prosy as any other Jersey village; but to these two, who recalled London days, as they went through it, it was poetical enough; and as they left the little stores and faced the country in all its autumn glory of color, and the sweet fall odors of ripening fruit met them, Mrs. Welles drew a deep breath.
“How lovely this is! No wonder you look well. What a waste it is, after all, to live in the city!”
“There is something to say on both sides, Harry thinks. We gain all that nature gives in the country, but we lose art and many things that brighten one’s wits. But people who have a very narrow income can enjoy very few of the advantages of city life, even if they live in it; so, for them, the country is undoubted gain.”
When they reached the house, Mrs. Welles was delighted with it and everything about it, and made Molly tell her all about her housekeeping and how she managed. When she had given her a sketch of her daily life, Mrs. Welles said, thoughtfully:
“That is all very nice, Molly; but it seems to me you must have a good deal to do, or else your Marta is a treasure.”
“Well, I have a good deal to do, and Marta is in one sense a treasure, though, at the same time, I can see that many people would not get along with her. Her good qualities seem to be cleanliness (although she is not tidy), and an ambition to be a good cook; but for general work she needs constant watching and telling. Still, annoying as that is, I do not know that one can expect more in a girl like her than willingness to do the work laid out for her. If I were paying for trained service, I should be dissatisfied; but there are few trained girls who will undertake general work.”
“That seems to me a matter of course. A girl who is anxious to rise is one who will try to learn how to do it, and it would be hard if one expected her to remain always in an inferior position. If we do that, I think we remove the strongest incentive to good work—the ambition to better herself. I think it is the general lack of such ambition among girls, the non-recognition of it as one of the conditions of service by ladies, that makes the great difference between our English servants and those here.”
“I am sure you are right,” said Molly; “and that seems to me the true solution of the servant difficulty. Young girls must learn that high wages and lighter work are to be attained by proficiency; that they can look on first places, where low wages only ought to be expected, as apprenticeships, and every succeeding one to be a step higher toward the comfortable and well-paid position an accomplished servant of any branch ought to be able to command. But this is something that depends on the ladies themselves. So long as they pay the competent and incompetent nearly alike, and do not insist on testimonials, not only as to respectability and temper, but proficiency in duties undertaken, there is not much encouragement to an ambitious girl, or at least she sees she can get along without making special effort, and that, if she does make it, she will meet with the discouraging fact that she is in competition with those who have made no effort.”
“Still, one would think that is a thing that would cure itself. Every one would rather pay competent servants than incompetent.”
“Of course, if they know it. But when two girls come well recommended, how can you or I tell which is the really competent one, if, as is often the case, a good-natured lady has taken her servant’s good qualities, her amiability and willingness, more into account than the efficient discharge of her duties? I have kept my eyes wide open on this subject, and find that a neat-looking, willing girl will nearly always keep a place, even if not competent for its duties, and be well recommended when she leaves; not, as justice demands, recommended for the qualities she actually has, but also for general competence.”
Mrs. Welles looked slyly at Molly.
“And what character would you give Marta?”
“Now, that is hardly fair. I see the evil. I don’t say I can do anything to remedy it; that has to be a general movement. When I am in Rome, I suppose I should do as the Romans do; yet I would try to be very specific. But it would do no good. If Marta leaves me and applies for a place as first-class cook she will get it. Some few ladies will need some more corroboration than her word and my letter, testifying to general good conduct; but many will readily take her, and she will stay a month or two, if not longer, get large wages enough to make it as profitable to wait for another well-paid place if she does not readily find it. A girl recommended as clean and willing will get a place as cook if she has the hardihood to assert her ability; yet who would employ a carpenter simply for his amiability?”
“Then you would have apprenticeship among servants as among artisans?”
“Of course, if it could be, I would; in other countries there is practical apprenticeship without bonds, that ensures, to the painstaking employer who does her best for a girl, not losing her the moment she has learnt the first rudiments of housework, and her apprentice year would be at low wages; she would have the option of advancing her year by year, or of letting her go and taking a fresh ‘prentice’ hand.”
“I pity the woman.”
“So do I, yet it is just what we all do more or less without any distinct benefit. Of course no reasonable person would expect a girl to remain at the low wages when she became worth more.”
“That’s just what I was thinking, Molly. You will make Marta worth a good deal more than $10 a month as wages go.”
“I know it, but I shall be content to give her $12 when she can do my work with only superintendence on my part, and later on I shall expect her to ask me $14; and I shall have to decide to give it, or take some one else; yet, if she does her best till then I shall not feel ill used, things being as they are. We can’t expect a young woman like Marta to be better than her times.”
“Still, this comes back to the same point; you have a good deal to do.”
“Yes, but what better employment can I have? We live about as comfortably as if we kept two servants, because I do much of the lighter work; I have no drudgery. Marta does that. I have very few social duties. I have plenty of time to read and do my little sewing and we live as I like to live; I should not be so happy any other way. When I have children I shall have less time, but I expect Marta will be able to go on pretty well with an hour of my time in the kitchen.”
“But suppose Marta wants to leave?”
“I don’t think she will. She seems to have the European horror of changing and, I think, believes herself part of the family. If I am mistaken I shall be unfortunate, but my altering my policy now would not change matters. I made up my mind to expect very little beyond hand work from one servant; that I have got.”
They chatted till Harry came home, Mrs. Welles unable to make up her mind whether Molly’s ideas were wise or foolish; as ideas they were good, of course, but how would they work in practice? Mrs. Welles was too English to understand why a woman should make up her mind to put up with half service, and she had been too well off since she had been married to have learnt by experience.