Anonymous

Venus in the Country

Chapter one

“The girl will have to go, Horace,” Mrs. Rumple declared soundly to her husband. “She's getting ever a healthier appetite and a new dress needed every year. It's all become too much. We can get a cheaper skivvy who will do twice as much housework as she and have her room into the bargain.”

“Yes, my dear,” Horace Rumple agreed sadly. He had no wish to see Pamela go. Now approaching eighteen, she was as lovely a lass as he had ever seen and many a time had given him a fine tingle in his breeches.

At the age of fifteen, Pamela had come into the care of the Rumples, who were considered by one and all in the district to be the most charitable of people. Her parents, it was said, had been lost at sea, her father having been the captain of a fine merchant vessel en route to India. Mrs. Rumple had looked the girl up and down and considered she would make a nice servant to open the door to their guests and to do the housework and all manner of things.

But little by little the good lady had begun to find Pamela a bit highborn in her ways. Not that the sweet girl intended to be. She was quiet by nature and well spoken. Perhaps her accent was a trifle superior to that of her guardians, which upset Mrs. Rumple considerably.

“You must tell her today, Horace, and have done with it.”

“Yes, my dear, but we can scarce put the poor thing out on the street.”

Mrs. Rumple was only waiting to produce her trump card.

“There is no need, Horace. I have made due arrangements. An advertisement in The Times called for a companion. I answered it. I gave them the highest credentials. They are pleased to say that they accept. She may leave tomorrow.”

Horace Rumple gazed across the breakfast table in awe at his good lady. She was ever resourceful and he lived in some fear of her. Had he not, he would have hopped into bed with Pamela ere this. Now he saw his chance. If the girl were to depart tomorrow, she would have little enough time to say anything to Mrs. Rumple about it. As luck would have it, his wife was to attend a social occasion that very afternoon. Beyond the windows of the house the sun shone bright in the garden. In every way it seemed a very fine day, he thought.

“I will attend to all, my dear,” he murmured.