Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/174

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
162
SHEILA AND OTHERS

I felt obliged to take measures against its reappearance.

Following her came another East-ender who sandwiched us in between the hours devoted to her regular work which was scrubbing in banks. Despair drove me to this arrangement—despair and hope, for I had been promised a sixth share in a highly recommended and highly accomplished English laundress about to confer her services on needy Canadians. So I temporized with the bank lady pending the arrival of the English specialist to whom I looked forward with an ardor fully justified by her subsequent ministrations. There was one drawback. There always is. She was averse to giving general assistance in the house, and as, under her expert management, the washing didn't extend very far into the day, time hung weary upon her hands.

"Of course, Mem, in Hengland, there would be maids for hall," she explained. "An 'ouse like this would 'ave three of them, at the very least. Hit's different hout 'ere—" an observation with which my own more extended experience tallies.

Circumstances began to improve under her