responsibility."

"There is so much competition for a thing of this kind," said Mr.
Rennie. "There are so many women in Scotland who have too little to
live on, or nothing at all, that they will gladly snatch at anything
that will give them food and lodging, and the smallest of salaries. I
know of a situation of 12 pounds a-year that received forty-five
applications from reduced gentlewomen. The payment is never in proportion
to the work."

"But the work has been badly done hitherto, I understand," said
Jane. "It is not having too little to live on that makes a woman fit
for such a situation as this. Why do not they raise the salary and
insist on higher qualifications?"

"I cannot tell why they do not, but so it is," said Mr. Rennie.

"Is there any chance of rising from second to first matron?" asked
Jane. "That is worth 90 pounds, you say."

"In the course of fifteen or twenty years, perhaps; but the duties are
very distinct at present, and require different kinds of talent."

"Yes," said Jane; "and great interest with the directors might get a
new person in, and fifteen or twenty years' services would have less
weight. I do not feel inclined to work twenty years for 30 pounds even
with a better chance of 90 pounds at last than is offered here. It is at
best a prison life, too; not the life I had hoped for, nor what I am best
fitted for. My cousin's place is filled up here, I understand."