servants kept is, that one or other or all of the men-servants is
sure to be wanting to keep company with you. They have nothing else
to do in their spare time, and I suppose it's handy having your
sweetheart living in the house. It doesn't give you so much trouble
with going out in the evening, if not fine.

The coachman was promised to the cook, which, I believe, often takes
place. Tim, the head groom, was a very nice, genteel fellow, and I
daresay I might have taken up with him, if I hadn't met with my
James, though never with John, who was the plague of my life. To
begin with, he had a black whisker, that I couldn't bear to look at,
let alone putting one's face against it, as I should have had to
have done when married, no doubt. And he had a roving black eye,
very yellowy in the white of it, and hair that looked all black and
bear's-greasy, though he always said he never put anything on it
except a little bay rum in moderation.

They tell me I was a pretty girl enough in those days, though looks
is less important than you might think to a housemaid, if only she
dresses neat and has a small waist. And I suppose I must think that
John really did love me in his scowling, black whiskery way. He was
a good footman, I will say that, and had been with the master three
years, and the best of characters; but whatever he might have
thought, I never would have had anything to do with him, even if
James and me had had seas between us broad a-rolling for ever and
ever Amen. He asked me once and he asked me twice, and it was 'no'
and 'no' again. And I had even gone so far as to think that perhaps
I should have to give up a good place to get out of his way, when
master's uncle, old Mr. Oliver, and his good lady, came to stay at
the Court, and with them came James, who was own man to Mr. Oliver.