The cook--a most
important factor--had always liked Bertie and adored his "sweet,
pretty little children." "If you'll let 'em sleep in the spare room
on the fourth floor, next their mother, and play in the day-time in
the servants' 'all, they'll be no manner of difficulty _nor_ bother
to me and the maids. We shall love to 'ave 'em, the darlin's. And
they'll serve to cheer you up a bit ma'am till the Professor comes
back."
Mrs. Adams was a very capable person who hated dust and grime. The
big house wanted some such intervention, as since the butler's
departure it had become rather slovenly, save in the portions
occupied by Mrs. Rossiter. Charwomen were got in, and spring
cleanings on a gigantic scale took place, so that when Rossiter did
return he thought it had never looked so nice, or his Linda been so
cheery and companionable.
But before this happy confirmation of her wisdom in engaging Nance
Adams as maid and factotum, Mrs. Rossiter had several waves of doubt
and distress to breast. There was the Suffrage question. Once
converted by Mrs. Humphry Ward, Miss Violet Markham, Sir Almroth
Wright--whose _prenom_ she could not pronounce--the late Lord
Cromer, and the impressive Lord Curzon, to the perils of the Woman's
Vote, Mrs. Rossiter was hard to move from her uncompromising
opposition to the enfranchisement of her sex. Some adroit champion
of the Wrong had employed the argument that _once_ Women got the
vote, _the Divorce Laws would be greatly enlarged_.
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