But she could not fancy Jemima in that
capacity, or as a housekeeper, or even as head housemaid or cook. She
had lived for years with Jemima herself, but she could not fit her
into a suitable place in the servants' hall.
However, with fifteen thousand a year, Madam Liberality could buy, if
needful, a field, and build a house, and put Jemima into it with a
servant to wait upon her. The really important question was about her
new domestics. Sixteen servants are a heavy responsibility.
Madam Liberality had very high ideas of the parental duties involved in
being the head of a household. She had suffered--more than Jemima--over
Jemima's lack of scruple as to telling lies for good purposes. Now a
footman is a young man who has, no doubt, his own peculiar temptations.
What check could Madam Liberality keep upon him? Possibly she might--under
the strong pressure of moral responsibility--give good general advice to
the footman; but the idea of the butler troubled her.
When one has lived alone in a little house for many years one gets
timid. She put a case to herself. Say that she knew the butler to be
in the habit of stealing the wine, and suspected the gardener of
making a good income by the best of the wall fruit, would she have the
moral courage to be as firm with these important personages as if she
had caught one of the school-children picking and stealing in the
orchard? And if not, would not family prayers be a mockery?
Madam Liberality sighed.
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