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Phantom Fortune, a Novel by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
page 284 of 654 (43%)
in the villages of Great and Little Langdale; and she had now a new
interest in these visits, for she had made up her mind that it was her
solemn duty to learn housekeeping--not such housekeeping as might have
been learnt at Fellside, supposing she had mustered the courage to ask
the dignified upper-servants in that establishment to instruct her; but
such domestic arts as are needed in the dwellings of the poor. The art
of making a very little money go a great way; the art of giving grace,
neatness, prettiness to the smallest rooms and the shabbiest furniture;
the art of packing all the ugly appliances and baser necessities of
daily life, the pots and kettles and brooms and pails, into the
narrowest compass, and hiding them from the aesthetic eye. Mary thought
that if she began by learning the homely devices of the villagers--the
very A B C of cookery and housewifery--she might gradually enlarge upon
this simple basis to suit an income of from five to seven hundred a
year. The house-mothers from whom she sought information were puzzled at
this sudden curiosity about domestic matters. They looked upon the thing
as a freak of girlhood which drifted into eccentricity, from sheer
idleness; yet they were not the less ready to teach Mary anything she
desired to learn. They told her those secret arts by which coppers and
brasses are made things of beauty, and meet adornment for an old oak
mantelshelf. They allowed her to look on at the milking of the cow, and
at the churning of the butter; and at bread making, and cake making, and
pie and pudding making; and some pleasant hours were spent in the
acquirement of this useful knowledge. Mary did not neglect the invalid
during this new phase of her existence. Lady Maulevrier was a lover of
routine, and she liked her granddaughter to go to her at the same hour
every day. From eleven to twelve was the time for Mary's duty as
amanuensis. Sometimes there were no letters to be written. Sometimes
there were several; but her ladyship rarely allowed the task to go
beyond the stroke of noon. At noon Mary was free, and free till five
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