Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/158

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146
SHEILA AND OTHERS

have suspected her of being a B. A. in disguise, seeking back-door material for articles on the inequalities of our industrial system, or something equally formidable. But her manner of speech saved the situation to me. It was the only point at which I wasn't cowed by a sense of her superiority, though, unfortunately, she didn't know that and I couldn't tell her.

Grammar is certainly a great moral support to one under some embarrassing situations.

It had always been my theory that the women who help in our households should be encouraged to attach themselves to the world without, to be persons in their own right as well as instruments of service to others. That is a responsibility domestic assistance entails, a point at which it vitally differs from the less personal relationship of the office or shop. The business-girl sells definite portions of her time and remains arbiter of the rest. The girl in what is called "service" enters her employer's household for practically all of her time, and her life while there is largely controlled and bounded by the character of that home. As she ministers to personal wants, so is she