Page:Storm Over Paris.pdf/10

three-months permit to a full year. The problem was how to live in the meanwhile. Anna solved this problem in her own way. She found work as a domestic.

Paris needed servants. The provinces were not providing as many country-girls as the Parisian cocottes needed. Housemaids with references, house-keepers and domestics were in great demand among the elegant ladies on the Champs Elysees. Anna, without references, and a stranger to the French tongue, had to content herself with a position at Madame Blank's, on the rue de la Victoire.

The work was hard in that six-room apartment, cluttered with furniture of the various Louis periods and of the most modern styles, as well as with heavy Persian and Chinese rugs and draperies. Everything had to be dusted and polished and swept clean, not a speck of dirt to remain. The knobs on the doors had to be rubbed till they shone, and the glassware in the cupboards cleaned till it sparkled. It was as if her mistress sought to overcome the mad confusion of furniture and bric-a-brac by an over-emphasis on cleanliness, and order; every bizarre antique had to have its proper place in this luxurious hell which Madame Blank called home.

Anna toiled all week; only on the days when Madame Blank "received," did she insist that her maid look spotless, white apron over her black dress, serve the guests, open the door, dispose of hats and coats, smile, and be quick and graceful. A glorified marionette pulled by the strings of her mistress's snobbery.

When the guests were gone, the Madame would scold her for being "awkward, gauche, discourteous," not knowing how to behave with people about, not being polite enough in thanking her guests when they tipped her, spending most of the time hidden in the kitchen when she was wanted. "All