She
welcomed, therefore, this opportunity both of teaching Mrs.
Redmain--she never called her her _mistress_, while severely
she insisted on the other servants' speaking of her so--the
propriety of taking counsel with her housekeeper and of letting
the young person know in time that Mrs. Perkin was in reality her
mistress.
The relation of the upper servants of the house to their
employers was more like that of the managers of an hotel to their
guests. The butler, the lady's-maid, and Mr. Redmain's body-
servant, who had been with him before his marriage, and was
supposed to be deep in his master's confidence, ate with the
housekeeper in her room, waited upon by the livery and maid-
servants, except the second cook: the first cook only came to
superintend the cooking of the dinner, and went away after. To
all these Mrs. Perkin was careful to be just; and, if she was
precise even to severity with them, she was herself obedient to
the system she had established--the main feature of which was
punctuality. She not only regarded punctuality as the foremost of
virtues, but, in righteous moral sequence, made it the first of
her duties; and the benefit everybody reaped. For nothing oils
the household wheels so well as this same punctuality. In a
family, love, if it be strong, genuine, and patent, will make up
for anything; but, where there is no family and no love, the loss
of punctuality will soon turn a house into the mere pouch of a
social _inferno_.
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