Chapter 5

Fan did not fail to be at Dawson Place at the time, or a little before
the time, appointed. "Oh, I hope that girl won't open the door when I
ring," she said to herself, giving the door-bell a little hesitating
pull. But the summons was promptly answered by the undesirable person in
question, and she greeted the visitor with a mocking curtsey. She had
little time, however, in which to make Fan miserable, for Miss Starbrow
was quickly on the scene, looking very gracious and very beautiful in a
dark red morning gown.

"Come here and sit down," she said, placing herself in one hall chair and
making Fan take the other. "Now listen. Would you like to come and live
here as my servant? You are not fit for such a place, I know--at all
events, not at present; and I should not put you with the other servants,
and upstairs you could do nothing. However that does not signify. The
thing is this. If you would like to come and live with me you must stay
here now, and never go back to those places where you have lived, and try
if possible to forget all about them."

"Oh yes, ma'am, I promise!" she replied, trembling with joy at the very
thought of escaping from that life of bitter want and anxiety.

"Very well, that's settled then. Come this way with me."

She then led the way to a large bath-room, a few steps above the
first-floor landing.

"Now," she said, "undress yourself, and put all your clothes and hat and
shoes in a bundle in the corner--they are shocking to look at, and must
be taken away--and give yourself a hot bath. See, I am turning on the
water for you. That will be enough. And stay in as long as you like, or
can, and try not only to wash off all the dirt on your skin, but all
thought and recollection of Moon Street and Harrow Road and doorsteps,
and all the foul evil things you have seen and heard in your life; and
when you have washed all that off, Fan, and dried yourself, wrap this
shawl around you, and run into that open room you see facing the bath."

Left to herself, Fan proceeded to obey the instructions she had received.
It was a great luxury to be in that smooth enamelled basin, where she
could lie at full length and move her limbs freely about, experiencing
the delicious sensation of the hot water over her whole body at the same
time.

In the dressing-room she found her mistress waiting for her. There were
clothes there ready for her, and now, for the first time in her life, she
dressed herself in new, clean, sweet garments, over all a gown of a soft
grey material, loose at the waist, and reaching nearly to the ankles--a
kind of "Maid Marian" costume. There were also black stockings and new
shoes.