This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
108
THREE YEARS IN EUROPE.

disobedience and impertinence of Ayas and Khansamas. But both the Hindu matron and the Mem Saheb would, I fancy, have more patience with the state of things in India after they have tried house-keeping in London for some time. Ladies who have passed the best part of their lives in London complain that they have never known a time when it was more difficult to get good servants, and to get them to do their work properly, than it is now. The cook who gets her 22 or 24 pounds the year (besides food which comes to more) will nevertheless persist in making her dishonest gains by secret arrangements with the butcher or the green grocer; and the housemaid who gets her £18 or 20 a year (besides food) will grumble at her work, and will certainly throw up her appointment in disdain unless she is allowed to have her "outing" every Sunday afternoon, to see her friends or meet her sweetheart. Our difficulties can easily be conceived, when English ladies always living in London feel and bitterly complain of these troubles.

In olden times, when you wanted a servant, you would speak to your milkman or your green grocer about it, and he would send you a decent girl whom he knew and could recommend. But these primitive ways have been done away within these days of advertisements and Registry offices. Now-a-days servants put in advertisements in papers stating their age and qualifications, and you may make a selection from these advertisements and then send for them with testimonials. Or you may put an advertisement in the papers describing the kind of servants you want and the wages you are willing to offer, and you