Service. By Constance Smedley. (Chatto and Windus. 6E14-r. Every one
knows the story of the lady who wrote to her friend about the paragon she had been asked to engage as a tutor:—"I have not yet found a tutor with the qualifications you require. When I do I shall certainly marry him." This dictum is very literally carried out by the hero of the present work, the heroine being a general servant with the manners of a Duchess, the temper of an archangel, and the ability of a Prime Minister. But the astonishing thing to the reader will be not only the virtues of Phebe Gayner, but the extraordinary cruelty of the Sturge e family in the matter of overworking their servant. Neither the author nor any member of the family turns a hair when speaking of the length of the hours which Phebe has to be on duty. These apparently range from five in the morning till twelve or one at night. Phebe further remarks, and the family complacently admit, that she• is never able to go out of doors as there' is too much work in that large house. It is not until half-way through the book that the young ladies who live at home, and who are, it must be admitted, busy in outside occupations, resolve that it behoves them to do a little housework for themselves. The quiet way in which the situation is accepted is indeed surprising to any one who is unaccustomed to seeing a staff even of one condemned to such unprecedented hours of labour. It is all very well for' Phebe to say, "God sends the strength with the work," but she really ought to consider what a bad effect such indulgence in callous selfishness must have on the morals of the Sturge family. -Mrs: Sturge does not like it when her brilliant artist son proposes to her maid-of-all-work, though, as she has already allowOd them to spend an afternoon tete-a-tete in Richmond Park, it might be thought that she would have known what to expect. In the 'end; of course, Phebe proves as great a paragon as a wife as she hag been as a maid, and Mrs. Stnrge becomes reconciled to the situation. The other characters of the book are all well and amusingly drawn, and the author is on the side of the angels in all her moral teaching except on the point mentioned above.
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