Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/84

86 the chambermaid, and told her that was the missing article.

The lady's name was on it, so she could not deny it, and when it came to be looked into, it was discovered the handkerchief, instead of being worth twenty-five or thirty, was not worth more than two or three dollars. The gentleman had picked it up on the stairs, where the lady had dropped it.

I then passed through the hall, and on till I came to the ladies' saloon, where there is a notice up, "servants not admitted here." Nevertheless, the notice did not do much good, as they usually congregated there in spite of all that could be said. The question of the merits and demerits of their different ladies was the general topic in the room. One of the maids said her lady was one of the most popular ladies in the ball-room, but was very tyrannical and cross with her servants, or those living with her, even to her governess, who is refined and every way her superior. When she engaged this governess, in New York, she promised to treat her as an equal, but when she got to Saratoga, she did not wish this young lady to be with her friends. When visitors came in, she invariably said she heard the children cry, or would send them all out walking, and in many other ways she treated her badly; her eyes were often inflamed with crying, and we are all waiting, she said, till we get back to New York, to leave her, coachman, chambermaid, ladies' maid, governess, and all. After the servants had finished the discussion of their ladies' merits and demerits, they all ran off into the ball-room. I then proceeded to the dining-room, found everything put up and nicely arranged in its place; then told the