Chapter XVI: A New Situation

"ARE you the new servant? If you are, mother says you're to go down to the kitchen, and wash up the things. My sister is ill, and the doctor is coming presently."

The speaker was the elder boy of the group of children she had seen before, and this was Fanny's introduction to her new situation.

The boy who had helped her to carry her box set it down in the passage and went away; while a feeling of forlornness began to creep over Fanny as she followed the little boy down to the kitchen.

When they reached the door, she paused for a moment.

"Is this the kitchen?" she asked, almost aghast at the sight of the dirty, comfortless room, that seemed to be filled with dirty cups and plates from end to end. Even the single wooden chair, that stood near the table, was piled high, like the table and dresser, with dirty crockery, and a vision of Mrs. Lloyd's cosy little kitchen rose in contrast.

"What are you staring at?" asked the little boy. "Jane ran away the other morning, so there's been nobody to wash up the tea-things and dinner-things."

It occurred to Fanny that she had better follow the example of her predecessor, and run away too; but she knew now that her situation at Mrs. Lloyd's was filled, and the thought of ten pounds a year made her willing to put up with some discomfort.

After a silent look round the room, she slowly took off her hat, and when the boy was turning away, she said—

"Wait a minute; you must show me where to find things, if I am to clear up this muddle."

A fire was lighted in the choked-up grate, for the first thing, and a kettle of water put on to boil, and when the little boy had told her where various things were kept, and had left her to find out what she could for herself, she commenced her task by taking off her afternoon frock, and putting on the one she had worn in the morning, and a large coarse apron over it, for the kitchen did not look as though it had been cleaned for a month, and dresser, cupboards, and table looked equally dirty.

At first, Fanny felt disposed to sit down and cry, but as the fire burned up, the kitchen began to look more cheerful, and with all her faults, Fanny was not afraid of hard work, and so she was soon sorting and separating cups and saucers from plates and dishes, and had more water on the fire to get hot, for she could do nothing without plenty of hot water.

No one came near her for nearly an hour. The children seemed very quiet, and she supposed Mrs. Lewis was upstairs with the little girl who was ill; so she set about her task of clearing up, and was nearly half done when her new mistress came into the kitchen.

"Come, make haste, Mary, I want the supper things set as soon as possible," she said.

"My name is Fanny," said the new servant.

"Well, we have been used to call the girls 'Mary' until the last, and she would be called Jane."

"I should like to be called by my own name, too," said Fanny; but the lady said that "Mary" was a much more convenient name, and so Fanny had to accept it.

She could not wash up all the dirty crockery, but as soon as she had done plates enough for the supper-table, she had to go upstairs and lay the cloth. Most of the children sat down to that meal, as well as her master and mistress, so that by the time that was cleared away, Fanny was tired with running up and down stairs, and had apparently made very little progress with clearing up the kitchen.

Ten o'clock had been the hour for going to bed at Mrs. Lloyd's; but apparently there was no such rule here, for after the clock had struck eleven, her new mistress told her to clear up all the rest of the dirty things, and put them away, before she went to bed; and that she must get up at six the next morning to get all the boots and shoes cleaned before breakfast, and the dining-room swept and dusted.

Fanny answered, "Yes, ma'am;" but it was easy to see that she already began to think she might have to pay too dearly for her increased wages, and by the time she got to bed, she was so tired that she cried herself to sleep.

By the end of the next day she had made up her mind that she would not stay more than a month, for Mrs. Lewis did not seem to understand how to manage either household or children; and now that one of them was ill, Fanny was kept running up and down stairs to the neglect of her other work, and was then scolded because it was not done.

Coming from a well-ordered household like Mrs. Lloyd's, it seemed to Fanny that everything went haphazard here, and mistress and maid alike seemed to be always struggling to overtake the work that needed doing, and yet never succeeded.

Mrs. Lewis was never a good manager, but now that she had her little daughter to nurse, matters were a good deal worse, and poor Fanny was so tired before bedtime came that she hardly knew how to drag one foot before the other.

It came to be a regular thing that she should cry herself to sleep every night, and oversleep herself in the morning.

Then, when the child got worse, and Fanny heard some one say it was scarlet fever, she could scarcely snatch time to have a meal in peace, for there was no time to sit down. When a meal was given to her, she took it to the kitchen and had a mouthful as she could snatch it, while washing up or getting something ready to take upstairs.

One day when she took up something to the sick-room, Mrs. Lewis gave her an apron full of odds and ends, and told her to put them on the kitchen fire; but the sight of a pink silk scarf, scarcely soiled, made Fanny decide to look then; over before she burned them, and when she did so, the pretty scarf and one or two pieces of ribbon were selected as being too good to throw away, and Fanny put them into her pocket.

At the end of a fortnight Fanny told her mistress that she would like to leave at the end of the month, as the work was too much for her.

Mrs. Lewis looked at her for a moment in silence, and then actually burst into tears.

"What am I to do if you leave me just now? Nobody else will come, with scarlet fever in the house."

"Is it so dangerous?" said Fanny, in a sudden fright.

"People are silly enough to be frightened of it," said the lady, "and so I hope you will stay with me until it is all over, and then I will make you a present for the extra work you have had, as well as give you a good holiday."

Fanny considered the matter for a minute, and then consented, though she heaved a sigh as she did so, for she was growing very tired of the hard drudgery of her work day after day, without any relaxation.

Since the little girl had been so very ill, Fanny had not been able to go out even on Sunday evening. Only when sent on an errand occasionally was there a chance of losing sight and sound of the constant work and worry.

She had been there three weeks, and began to wish that she had not consented to stay beyond the month, when one morning she woke up unusually early, but when she got up her head ached so much that she was obliged to lie down on the bed again.

She managed to crawl downstairs at six o'clock, and after breakfast she felt a little better; but before she went to bed at night her throat was sore, and she tied the pink scarf round it when she went upstairs. The following day, when she was answering a knock at the kitchen street door, she was startled to see the collector from Judds', as the boy who had brought potatoes turned away.

"You didn't expect to see me, miss," he said with a grin, as Fanny changed colour. She felt too poorly, too much upset by the sight of the man to reply. "Judds don't like this sort of thing," he said, after a pause. "Customers moving away and never giving us notice is against the rules. Now for the money," he added.

"I can't pay you to-day," said Fanny, thinking of the new frock that had been sent home the previous evening from Mrs. Scott.

"Then you know what the consequence will be, miss. I shall have to send the inspector to call upon you," said the man.

"Very well," was all Fanny could answer, for the shock of seeing this man, whom she thought she had escaped, for a time at least, seemed to deprive her of all her remaining strength. She shut the door, crept back to the kitchen, and sank down on the chair as though she was about to faint. She sat there until she was startled by the imperative ringing of the front-door bell. She stumbled up the stairs, and opened the door to the doctor. He stepped in, and then paused on the mat to look at her.

"What is the matter?" he asked. "You are ill. You have no business to be here, my girl. Where is your mistress?" he added.

Mrs. Lewis came downstairs at the same moment. "She is better to-day, doctor; I am sure she is better," she said, in a tone of glad excitement.

"I am glad to hear it," said the doctor; "but we have another patient here, I am afraid. This girl has taken the fever, and must go to bed at once. Send her to her room, and I will see her there presently."

"Go to bed, Mary," said her mistress, in a blank, bewildered tone.

"I will come and look at you in a minute," said the doctor, speaking to Fanny as she crept upstairs. She was thankful, indeed, to be told to go to bed, and thought nothing of what might happen to her next, for she was now too ill to think of anything. She had only just crept under the bedclothes when the doctor and Mrs. Lewis came upstairs. The result of the doctor's examination, and the talk with Mrs. Lewis that followed was that Fanny was taken to a fever hospital a few hours later, and the next day she was quite delirious. Fanny's things were put together in her box, the new dress taken down from its peg and tumbled in with the rest, and they were all taken away to be fumigated.

The doctor had remarked that Fanny was a strong, healthy girl, and might soon be able to come back; but Mrs. Lewis had her own opinion about this. The poor woman was so bewildered as she thought of what she should do, now that Fanny was gone, that she entirely forgot that the girl had friends who ought to be informed of what had happened to her, and it was not until the following Sunday that the thought of this occurred to her. She was doing something in the kitchen about six o'clock, when there came a knock at the street door, and when Mrs. Lewis opened it, Miriam stared for a moment at seeing the lady, and then said—

"Isn't Fanny coming out to-night?" She spoke rather aggressively, for she had been disappointed the previous Sunday.

"Oh, you mean Mary, I suppose?" said Mrs. Lewis. "Do you know where her mother and father live?" she asked.

"Has she gone home?" exclaimed Miriam, quickly.

"No. She has gone to the hospital, and I could only give the people this address, for she was too sleepy and stupid to tell us anything; so you go and tell her friends that she was taken to the fever hospital last Thursday."

Miriam nodded. "Whatever was the matter with her?" she said.

"She caught scarlet fever, but the doctor thought she would not have it very bad," added Mrs. Lewis; and then she shut the door, without waiting to hear any more from Miriam.

For a minute she stood still, wondering what she had better do, and how she could let Fanny's friends know what had happened to her, considering she knew no more of their address than that they lived at the other end of the town. At length she remembered Mrs. Lloyd, and thought she would be sure to know where Fanny's friends lived, and she felt sure that she should find the lady at home, as she seldom went out on Sunday evening. So she hurried to Mrs. Lloyd's, and, as she expected, that lady answered the door herself.

"If you please, ma'am, can you tell me where Fanny lives?" she said quickly.

"Fanny?" repeated the lady. "She has left my service."

"Yes, ma'am, and she's in the fever hospital, and nobody don't know nothing about it," interrupted Miriam.

"In the hospital! But the authorities there will know where she lives, surely!" exclaimed Mrs. Lloyd.

"No, ma'am, I've just seen the lady at Fanny's new place, and she says Fanny was sleepy and stupid-like when they took her away, and they put down that address, and she doesn't know where Fanny lives. She never told her, and she never told me," concluded Miriam.

"Dear me, what is to be done, then? For I don't think she ever told me her proper address. I know where she went to school, and I will go and see her teacher the first thing to-morrow morning."

This did not quite please Miriam. She had often wondered where Fanny lived, and why she had not been asked to go home to tea with her, and supposed that her home was hardly respectable, or she would have been invited to go there.

In reality it was Fanny's foolish pride that had made her unwilling to let her friend know where she lived; for Miriam had made no secret of the fact that her father was a small farmer, which sounded grand to Fanny, who was painfully conscious of how one thing after the other had been taken out of the home and sold to meet the expense of her father's long illness, and as yet they could not afford to replace this parlour furniture; but Fanny had spoken of it as though it still formed part of her home when Miriam told of the old-fashioned blue parlour that was seldom used, except for weddings and christenings.

Now, Miriam thought she would like to find out what sort of a house her friend's mother did occupy, and so she said—

"I am not going to church this evening, so if you will tell me where Fanny went to school, I will try to find her mother this evening."

But it had occurred to Mrs. Lloyd that it would be kinder to let the school-mistress know what had happened, and ask her to break the news to the girl's friends, rather than send a girl like Miriam to carry the message.

So she said, "Thank you for your kind offer; but I think the friend who recommended Fanny to me would be the best person to break this bad news to her mother and father."

"Well, I suppose it is bad news," said Miriam. "And I heard yesterday that scarlet fever was very much about."

"Very likely," Mrs. Lloyd replied; and then she waited for Miriam to go away, which she was obliged to do at last, without finding out where Mrs. Brown lived.

She went to her cousin's, and asked about Fanny's new dress.

"I took it home last Tuesday. I couldn't get yours and hers both done on the Saturday, I told you. What are you looking at?" said Mrs. Scott, in a tone of sudden alarm.

"Nothing. Only I wondered what would happen next," answered Miriam.

"Happen next! What do you mean? You are not going to tell me she has left her situation and taken that lovely new dress with her."

Miriam shook her head. "She has left her situation, but I don't suppose she has taken the new dress with her, for she has gone to the fever hospital," she said.

"The fever hospital!" almost screamed Mrs. Scott, and retreating from Miriam as though the talking of a fever hospital would convey the infection. "I heard only yesterday that people were being taken to the hospital in hundreds, that they have had to take a house outside the town to send some of the people there because the hospital is so full. And now that poor girl has gone there, you say."

"She's gone to the hospital! Won't they send her clothes with her," asked Miriam.

Her cousin shook her head. "I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry to send that dress home," she said, with a sigh.

"I wish I knew where her mother lived, I would go and tell her all about it," said Miriam.

"Well, I think you ought to know that," said her cousin, "and I ought to have been told before I made that dress. I suppose I may reckon that as lost now;" and Mrs. Scott scolded Miriam for not taking care to know all about her friend before recommending her.

"Oh, I dare say it will be all right, and you will get the money for the dress," said Miriam, crossly; and she bade her cousin good night in no pleasant mood.