Jane’s Career: A Story of Jamaica
Chapter 8
The third month of her career in Kingston had passed when, one forenoon, in coming in from the shop to which she had been sent by her mistress, Jane was greeted by her mother and Kate, the latter being one of the girls with whom, it will be remembered, she had discussed her prospects in Kingston on the day before she left the country for the city.
“Hi!” she exclaimed, genuinely surprised. “I dream of you two a week ago, but I never expec’ to see such a person like you. How y’u do, mumma? How y’u do, Kate?”
The mother rose from the doorstep on which she had been sitting, and shook hands cordially with her daughter, Kate following her example. Mrs Mason, standing at the door, beamed upon the group as though conscious that the happiness of this reunion was entirely due to her forethought and arrangement.
“Well, Jane,” said her mother, “I more than glad to see y’u. How y’u getten on? But I needn’t ask you dat, for you’ schoolmissis tell me all about y’u already. As I was tellin’ her before y’u come in, I did know from de first dat she was de proper sort of lady to look after y’u and see you broughted up properly. Yes, ma’am” (turning to Mrs Mason), “I told her fader so de very day I did bring Jane to y’u to show her to y’u. She is improve already, an’, wid de help of God, will get on nicely. But y’u know she is growin’, ma’am? Yes, ma’am, she is really growin’. She will soon meck me feel small. Kingston an’ good treatment agree wid her.”
Mrs Mason immediately seized the opportunity comment in a modest way upon her own virtues.
“I am doing the best I can for Jane, Mrs Burrell,” she said, with unctuous rectitude. “Perhaps she don’t appreciate it, but 1 know you do, for if 1 didn’t know the sort of person you are, I wouldn’t ‘ave taken Jane at all. Girls don’t understand the feelings of we established people, Mrs Burrell, an’ that is why when y’u speak to them for their own good, they think you unkind. I always say to her: ‘Jane, you’ expect me to train you decently and to see you grow up to be a credit to her, and therefore, though don’t understand me now when 1 speak to you, know you’ mother will appreciate it.’ Don’t I tell you so, Jane?”
There was no way of avoiding the trap, though Jane saw it plainly. “Yes, ma’am,” she said, knowing that by so saying she had given Mrs Mason a certificate character which the lady did not, in her opinion, at all deserve. Mrs Mason, full of knowledge as to the ways and wiles of schoolgirls when their family came to see them, had adopted this method of demanding from them open testimony as to her care and treatment of them when some responsible relative of theirs was present; after that, she usually arranged that the girl should not have any time alone with her visitor “to carry lie and story,” as she put it. When Jane had caught sight of her mother on coming in, her first impulse had been to seize the opportunity to tell her of Mrs Mason’s character; but that astute lady, b