There were two gilt pier-
glasses, and a buffet, on which a few pieces of plates, set
out to the most shew, dazzled, and altogether persuaded me
that I must be got into a very reputable family.
Here my mistress first began her part, with telling me
that I must have good spirits, and learn to be free with
her; that she had not taken me to be a common servant, to
do domestic drudgery, but to be a kind of companion to her;
and that if I would be a good girl, she would do more than
twenty mothers for me; to all which I answered only by the
profoundest and the awkwardest curtsies, and a few mono-
syllables, such as "yes! no! to be sure!"
Presently my mistress touch'd the bell, and in came a
strapping maid-servant, who had let us in. "Here, Martha,"
said Mrs. Brown--"I have just hir'd this young woman to
look after my linen; so step up and shew her her chamber;
and I charge you to use her with as much respect as you
would myself, for I have taken a prodigious liking to her,
and I do not know what I shall do for her."
Martha, who was an arch-jade, and, being used to this
decoy, had her cue perfect, made me a kind of half curtsy,
and asked me to walk up with her; and accordingly shew'd
me a neat room, two pair of stairs backwards, in which
there was a handsome bed, where Martha told me I was to
lie with a young gentlewoman, a cousin of my mistress's,
who she was sure would be vastly good to me.
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