Then Came The Two
Women - The Mother To Mrs. Todd, The Daughter To Me - Who Were Insulted
Because They Were Expected To Occupy Servant's Rooms, And Could Not
"Eat With The Family" - So Mrs. Todd And I Gave Them Cordial
Invitations To Depart.
Then came my Russian treasure - a splendid cook,
but who could not be taught that a breakfast or dinner
An hour late
mattered to a regimental adjutant, and wondered why guard mounting
could not be held back while she prepared an early breakfast for Faye.
After a struggle of two months she was passed on. A tall, angular
woman with dull red hair drawn up tight and twisted in a knot as hard
as her head, was my next trial. She was the wife of a gambler of the
lowest type, but that I did not know while she was here.
One day I told her to do something that she objected to, and with her
hands clinched tight she came up close as if to strike me. I stood
still, of course, and quietly said, "You mustn't strike me." She
looked like a fury and screamed, "I will if I want to!" She was inches
taller than I, but I said, "If you do, I will have you locked in the
guardhouse." She became very white, and fairly hissed at me, "You
can't do that - I ain't a soldier." I told her, "No, if you were a
soldier you would soon be taught to behave yourself," and I continued,
"you are in an army post, however, and if you do me violence I will
certainly call the guard." Before I turned to go from the room I
looked up at her and said, "Now I expect you to do what I have told
you to do." I fully expected a strike on my head before I got very
far, but she controlled herself. I went out of the house hoping she
would do the same and never return, but she was there still, and we
had to tell her to go, after all. I must confess, though, that the
work she had objected to doing she did nicely while I was out. Miller
told me that she had three pistols and two large watches in her
satchel when she went away.
Then came a real treasure - Scotch Ellen - who has been with us six
months, and has been very satisfactory every way. To be sure she has
had awful headaches, and often it has been necessary for some one to
do her work. She and the sergeant's wife prepared the supper for the
german, and everything was sent to the hall in a most satisfactory
way - much to my delight. Nothing wrong was noticed the next morning
either, until she carried chocolate to Mrs. Hughes, when I saw with
mortification that she looked untidy, but thinking of the confusion in
her part of the house, I said nothing about it.
Our breakfast hour is twelve o'clock, and about eleven Mrs. Hughes and
I went out for a little walk.
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