Mary was depressed. Out of high school for three months now and not one decent job offer. She was getting desperate!!! Her parents were on her back and she couldn’t blame them, underfoot all day and just generally in her mom’s way. As she scanned the want ads for the 23rd time her eye caught sight of an ad she must have missed. It read, “Older widowed lady needs live in female for general household duties and companionship. Will pay top dollar to the right person! Start right away. Call Mrs. Bradford at 555-1212.” Mary reread the ad several times trying to decide if she even wanted to get into domestic work. As hard up as she was, the words “top dollar” made her pick up the phone and dial the listed number. A minute later she had an appointment to meet Mrs. Bradford tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 o’clock, and while she wasn’t exactly looking forward to it, Mary really needed to get something going, and how hard could domestic work be?
At exactly three p.m. Mary was knocking on the big front door at the address Mrs. Bradford had given her over the phone the day before. The house was huge–almost a mansion! This might turn out to be more work than she had bargained for! Just then the door swung open and Mary was introducing herself to Mrs. Bradford and her friend Cora Hilliard. Both women looked to be in their early sixties but Mary was never very good at guessing people’s ages. Mary sat down in an overstuffed easy chair in the dimly lit parlor while the two ladies sat opposite her on a long sofa. After giving her vital information–age, education, work history, etc., Zoe Bradford explained what her duties would be if she took the job. In addition to general cleaning, she would be required to make the meals, grocery shop, and generally run the basic household on a day to day basis. Most of her evenings would be free and she would have Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday off and of course her room and board would be free and she would pretty much have the run of the house.
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