LECTURE XXXII--MRS. CAUDLE DISCOURSES OF MAIDS-OF-ALL-WORK AND MAIDS
IN GENERAL. MR. CAUDLE'S "INFAMOUS BEHAVIOUR" TEN YEARS AGO



"There now, it isn't my intention to say a word to-night, Mr. Caudle.
No; I want to go to sleep, if I can; for after what I've gone through
to-day, and with the headache I've got,--and if I haven't left my
smelling-salts on the mantelpiece, on the right-hand corner just as
you go into the room--nobody could miss it--I say, nobody could miss
it--in a little green bottle, and--well, there you lie like a stone,
and I might perish and you wouldn't move. Oh, my poor head! But it
may open and shut, and what do you care?

"Yes, that's like your feeling, just. I want my salts, and you tell
me there's nothing like being still for a headache. Indeed? But I'm
not going to be still; so don't you think it. That's just how a
woman's put upon. But I know your aggravation--I know your art. You
think to keep me quiet about that minx Kitty,--your favourite, sir!
Upon my life, I'm not to discharge my own servant without--but she
shall go. If I had to do all the work myself, she shouldn't stop
under my roof. I can see how she looks down upon me. I can see a
great deal, Mr. Caudle, that I never choose to open my lips about--
but I can't shut my eyes. Perhaps it would have been better for my
peace and mind if I always could. Don't say that. I'm not a foolish
woman, and I know very well what I'm saying. I suppose you think I
forget THAT Rebecca? I know it's ten years ago that she lived with