Work: A Story of Experience | Page 9

should be good to you now."
If Hepsey had been surprised by the new girl's protest against being
made a boot-jack of, she was still more surprised at this sudden
kindness, for she had set Christie down in her own mind as "one ob
dem toppin' smart ones dat don't stay long nowheres." She changed her
opinion now, and sat watching the girl with a new expression on her
face, as Christie took boot and brush from her, and fell to work
energetically, saying as she scrubbed:
"I'm ashamed of complaining about such a little thing as this, and don't
mean to feel degraded by it, though I should by letting you do it for me.
I never lived out before: that's the reason I made a fuss. There's a polish,
for you, and I'm in a good humor again; so Mr. Stuart may call for his
boots whenever he likes, and we'll go to dinner like fashionable people,
as we are."
There was something so irresistible in the girl's hearty manner, that
Hepsey submitted at once with a visible satisfaction, which gave a
relish to Christie's dinner, though it was eaten at a kitchen table, with a
bare-armed cook sitting opposite, and three rows of burnished
dish-covers reflecting the dreadful spectacle.
After this, Christie got on excellently, for she did her best, and found
both pleasure and profit in her new employment. It gave her real
satisfaction to keep the handsome rooms in order, to polish plate, and
spread bountiful meals. There was an atmosphere of ease and comfort
about her which contrasted agreeably with the shabbiness of Mrs.
Flint's boarding-house, and the bare simplicity of the old home. Like
most young people, Christie loved luxury, and was sensible enough to
see and value the comforts of her situation, and to wonder why more
girls placed as she was did not choose a life like this rather than the
confinements of a sewing-room, or the fatigue and publicity of a shop.
She did not learn to love her mistress, because Mrs. Stuart evidently
considered herself as one belonging to a superior race of beings, and
had no desire to establish any of the friendly relations that may become
so helpful and pleasant to both mistress and maid. She made a royal
progress through her dominions every morning, issued orders, found
fault liberally, bestowed praise sparingly, and took no more personal
interest in her servants than if they were clocks, to be wound up once a
day, and sent away the moment they got out of repair.

Mr. Stuart was absent from morning till night, and all Christie ever
knew about him was that he was a kind-hearted, hot-tempered, and very
conceited man; fond of his wife, proud of the society they managed to
draw about them, and bent on making his way in the world at any cost.
If masters and mistresses knew how skilfully they are studied, criticised,
and imitated by their servants, they would take more heed to their ways,
and set better examples, perhaps. Mrs. Stuart never dreamed that her
quiet, respectful Jane kept a sharp eye on all her movements, smiled
covertly at her affectations, envied her accomplishments, and practised
certain little elegancies that struck her fancy.
Mr. Stuart would have become apoplectic with indignation if he had
known that this too intelligent table-girl often contrasted her master
with his guests, and dared to think him wanting in good breeding when
he boasted of his money, flattered a great man, or laid plans to lure
some lion into his house. When he lost his temper, she always wanted
to laugh, he bounced and bumbled about so like an angry blue-bottle
fly; and when he got himself up elaborately for a party, this
disrespectful hussy confided to Hepsey her opinion that "master was a
fat dandy, with nothing to be vain of but his clothes,"--a sacrilegious
remark which would have caused her to be summarily ejected from the
house if it had reached the august ears of master or mistress.
"My father was a gentleman; and I shall never forget it, though I do go
out to service. I've got no rich friends to help me up, but, sooner or later,
I mean to find a place among cultivated people; and while I'm working
and waiting, I can be fitting myself to fill that place like a gentlewoman,
as I am."
With this ambition in her mind, Christie took notes of all that went on
in the polite world, of which she got frequent glimpses while "living
out." Mrs. Stuart received one evening of each week, and on these
occasions Christie, with an extra frill on her white apron, served the
company, and enjoyed herself more than they did, if the truth had been
known.
While helping