May 1919

The day the housemaid had to leave because her husband ' didn't want her to work no more ' and, to consolidate his authority, had punched her so hard in the neck that she had a great red swelling under ear, the cook became a kind of infallible being, — an angel of mercy. Nothing was too much for her. Stairs were rays of light up which she floated. She wore her cap differently : it gave her the air of a hospital nurse. Her voice changed. She suggested puddings as though they were compresses : whiting, because they were so ' deli- cate and harmless.' Trust me! Lean on me! There is nothing I cannot do ! was her attitude. Every time she left me, she left me for her mysterious reasons — to lay out the body again and again — to change the stiff- ened hand — to pull the paper frill over the ominous spot appearing.