A WEEK’S TEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 April 1924, Page 6

A WEEK’S TEST

COUNTESS AS PARLOURMAID

LONDON, February 29. Disguised as a parlourmaid, a titled woman has carried out an experiment in domestic service at a large house, pe.rched on the hills here.

She left last Saturday, and not until this morning,. did her employer learn that her former parlourmaid was, in fact, the Comtesse de Armil, widow of a Portuguese diplomat. The experiment has produced certain definite results, which can be summarised in these two points of view :

Comtesse de Armil: That domestic service, as she experienced it, is distasteful. The employer: That comtesses are not successful as parlourmaids. “We hadn’t the faintest idea, that ‘Ellen Phillips,’ the name in wincn I engaged her, was other than the person she pretended to be,’’ said her late mistress to me to-day. “The Comtesse telephoned me, in answer to an advertisement for a, house parlourmaid, recoimmenaiii;her lady’s maid, who she said, had been with her for five years. xind 'Ellen Phillips’ came down to see me on the Monday. “She appeared to be well-bred, and I thought that she was a woman who had seen better days. She. had a written character from the Comtesse, in which she was described as capable and willing, and I agreed to pay her £5O a year, explained her duties to her, and introduced her to the cook-general. “She took up her duties on the Saturday, arriving with a. suit-calse, and explaining that if she was satisfactory she would fetch her box. But it was quickly apparent that she was deficient in .those qualities which one expects of a lady’s maid quite apart from her capacities as a parlourmaid. . “When she was set to do some ironings we found that out, and confirmed the impression from the circumstance that she could not use her needle —two essential points, I should think, in a lady’s maid. “Within a week everything was in such a muddle that I determined ‘Ellen Phillips’ was not suitable, and I told her to look about for another job; and that I would not stand in her way if she found something’. On the Monday I gave her £l. and she went up to town returning in the evening with the statement that she had another place and would like to go on the following Saturday. I gather since that she attended the Labour Party reception in London. “On the Saturday she asked for the wages due to her. I went upstairs to get the money and discovered that her bed had not been made, and I refused to pay her until she put her room in order. “It has taught me a lesson,” added the mistress : “I shall only take up personal references for maids in future. “Any hardship which the Comtesse found during her fortnight here was due to her inexperience and ignorance of how to tackle her duties 'methodically; for the house, as you can see, has not long been built, and is lab-our-saving.”