"Englishman, well educated, desires afternoon engagement; experienced in the care of children; good needlewoman; or would assist light housework.

Up to now, the unpacking and distribution of the furniture, with the daily housework and cooking, had been all that Mrs. Carey and the girls could manage.

Then, six years ago, he had run off with old Sören Kule's young wife, and Josephine's dream had come to an end, leaving her life little more than a dull, empty round of routine housework.

The unaccustomed housework had roughened and chapped her hands, and the many failures in her cooking experiments, in spite of Mrs, Corbett's instructions, had left her tired and depressed, for a failure is always depressing, even if it is only in the construction of the things which perish.