, but they did nothing but quarrel; the cook left us on this account.
We took our new cook simply because she happened to be a friend of the
housemaid; but before long we found that it was out of the frying-pan
into the fire: the first two had quarrelled 'because there wasn't
sufficient work for two to do;' the second pair played together so much
that they never did any work. We banished them both, and tried keeping
only one servant, which many people had assured us would prove more
comfortable. So far they were right. Hitherto my wife's time had chiefly
been taken up with looking after the servants, to see that they did their
work; now peace reigned in the house. We gave our maid-of-all-work
fifteen shillings a week; we thought we had found a real treasure, and
for a month everything went on wheels. But at the end of that time, just
when she was getting accustomed to our ways and we to hers, Sarah gives a
week's notice; she had no fault to find with her mistress, but the place
was too dull. We offered two shillings a week extra but in vain. Our next
stayed six weeks; her reason for leaving was that she did not approve of
the back-yard. Number six stayed for three months; she was very nearly
leaving at the end of the first fortnight, but we won her heart by giving
her young man free access to the kitchen from 9 o'clock to 10.30 every
evening. Even then, however, she found the place too dull. Number eight
stayed two months; she left avowedly because she did not care to stop too
long in one place. The ninth remained only a fortnight. She left because
we objected to her staying out after eleven o'clock at night, although we
gave her three nights out a week after half-past eight.

When there are children in a middle-class family, a nurse-girl is
generally, but by, no means always, kept. Hers is the lowest of all the
branches of service, and is only taken by a young girl just going out
into the world. Trained nurses, such as are common at home, are in great
demand, and almost unobtainable. They can earn a pound a week easily, and
at such wages a man whose income only runs into three figures is forced
to put up with a nurse-girl. She undertakes no responsibility, her duties
being confined to carrying the baby and screaming at the other children
if they attempt to do themselves any bodily harm. If you wish to
understand what the average nurse-girl is like, you have but to walk
through any of the public gardens; you will see babi