[00:01.080]--- lesson 49 The ideal servant
[00:06.000]--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
[00:11.920]--- What was Bessie's 'little weakness'?
[00:16.920]It is a good thing my aunt Harriet died years ago.
[00:20.840]If she were alive today she would not be able to air her views on her favourite topic of conversation: domestic servants.
[00:29.600]Aunt Harriet lived in that leisurely age when servants were employed to do housework.
[00:35.720]She had a huge, rambling country house called 'The Gables'.
[00:40.760]She was sentimentally attached to this house, for even though it was far too big for her needs,
[00:46.960]she persisted in living there long after her husband's death.
[00:51.240]Before she grew old, Aunt Harriet used to entertain lavishly.
[00:56.480]I often visited The Gables when I was a boy.
[01:00.160]No matter how many guests were present, the great house was always immaculate.
[01:06.280]The parquet floors shone like mirrors;
[01:09.320]highly polished silver was displayed in gleaming glass cabinets;
[01:13.800]even my uncle's huge collection of books was kept miraculously free from dust.
[01:19.480]Aunt Harriet presided over an invisible army of servants that continuously scrubbed, cleaned, and polished.
[01:28.560]She always referred to them as 'the shifting population',
[01:32.520]for they came and went with such frequency that I never even got a chance to learn their names.
[01:38.760]Though my aunt pursued what was, in those days, an enlightened policy, in that she never allowed her domestic staff to work more than eight hours a day, she was extremely difficult to please.
[01:52.080]While she always criticized the fickleness of human nature,
[01:56.600]she carried on an unrelenting search for the ideal servant to the end of her days,even after she had been sadly disillusioned by Bessie.
[02:07.920]Bessie worked for Aunt Harriet for three years.
[02:11.480]During that time she so gained my aunt's confidence, that she was put in charge of the domestic staff.
[02:19.080]Aunt Harriet could not find words to praise Bessie's industriousness and efficiency.
[02:25.320]In addition to all her other qualifications, Bessie was an expert cook.
[02:31.120]She acted the role of the perfect servant for three years before Aunt Harriet discovered her 'little weakness'.
[02:38.560]After being absent from The Gables for a week,
[02:41.520]my aunt unexpectedly returned one afternoon with a party of guests and instructed Bessie to prepare dinner.
[02:49.680]Not only was the meal well below the usual standard, but Bessie seemed unable to walk steadily.
[02:56.960]She bumped into the furniture and kept mumbling about the guests.
[03:01.520]When she came in with the last course -- a huge pudding -- she tripped on the carpet
[03:07.360]and the pudding went flying through the air, narrowly missed my aunt, and crashed on the dining table with considerable force.
[03:15.920]Though this caused great mirth among the guests, Aunt Harriet was horrified.
[03:21.640]She reluctantly came to the conclusion that Bessie was drunk.
[03:26.800]The guests had, of course, realized this from the moment Bessie opened the door for them and,long before the final catastrophe, had had a difficult time trying to conceal their amusement.
[03:38.040]The poor girl was dismissed instantly.
[03:41.200]After her departure, Aunt Harriet discovered that there were piles of empty wine bottles of all shapes and sizes neatly stacked in what had once been Bessie's wardrobe.
[03:52.000]They had mysteriously found their way there from the wine cellar!