COUNTESS AS A MAID.

Gisborne Times, Volume LX, Issue 9799, 8 May 1924, Page 3

COUNTESS AS A MAID.

A! DOMESTIC IN' SURREY. WAS SHE*A SUCCESS? ! HOPES TO BE A WAITRESS, i • | Disguised as a. parlormaid, a titled •woman, lias carried out an experiment in domestic service at a large house, parched on the hills here, wrote the Henley (Surrey) correspondent of a London paper recently, j She left last Saturday, and! not ■ until this morning did her employer ; learn that her former parlormaid was in fact that Comtesse de Armil, widow of a Portuguese diplomat, j The experiment has produced certain definite results, which can bo , summarised in these two points of [ view: j / Comtesse de Armil: That domestic service, as sire: experienced it. is distasteful. ; The Employer -. That comtesses are , not successful as parlormaids. | “We hadn’t the faintest idea that j ‘Ellen Phillips,’ the name in which I ; engaged her, was other than the person she pretended to be.” said her late mistress. i “The Comtesse telephoned me, in answer to an advertisement for a house parlormaid, recommending her lady’s maid, who, she said, had been with her for five years. And ‘Ellen Phillips’ came down to see met 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 £SO a year, explained her duties to her, and introduced her to the* cookgeneral. “She took up her duties on the Saturday, arriving with a suit-ease, 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 parlormaid.

'“When she was set to do some ironing 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 mtaid. “TAUGHT ME A LESSON.” “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 Labor party reception in London.

“On the Saturday she asked for the wages dua 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 had put her room in order.

“It has taught me a lesson,”- added the mistress; “I shall only take up persona] 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 labor-saving. REPLY TO EMPLOYER.

“It is all very well for my late mistress to say that any hardships which I suffered during my period as a house-parlormaid were due to my inexperience and ignorance of how- to tackle duties methodically, hut I challenge anyone to work 16 hours a day every day and be able to apply a cool, steady and a fresh body to the daily round,” said the Comtesse do Armil, 'when she was shown a statement made by her late “mistress.”

“In the recommendation upon which I was engaged. I stated: ‘Ellen Phillips has been known to me for five years as companion and lady’s maid. I have always found her thoroughly honest and very obliging. —(Signed) Comtesse de Armil.’ “All that was thoroughly true. My own name was Ellen Phillips. I have been my own companion and my own lady’s maid —because L could not afford to keep another one* —for the. last five years, and I can truthfully say that I have always found myself honest and obliging. “I was never asked to any needlework while I was there because I had made it clear that' I was not an expert*. I did some ironing with one of those old-fashioned ironers, and I suppose the best proof of my ability in that direction that I can give is that I did not buVn anything.” ADVENTUROUS CAREER. “As for the .statement that it was suggested' to live* that I should look for another job, the reverse is the case. When, at the end of the fortnight I suggested to my mistress that I had had enough of sixteen hours’ work'a. day she almost implored me to stay to the end of the month, hut I had had enough.

“All the time I) was here I was just ‘Phillips.’ ” The Comtesse doi Armil has had a somewhat* adventurous career. Widow of a Portuguese diplomat, She was a pioneer in the early days' of flight. She' was a nurse during the war, and for :a time she conducted a school in the % gardens of the Kaiser’s Palace) at Coblenz, was an interpreter to the French -army on the Rhineland Commission, and a canteen worker. Now she proposes* to apply for a post as a waitress at the Wembley Exhibition.