The more you did for them, the more they expected, and soon came to demand as a right what had been at first granted as a favor.

Mrs.Armitage was, in a word, one of those petty domestic tyrants, who rule with the rod of apparent authority.

Perfect submission she deemed the only true order in a household.

Of course, true order she never could gain, for such a thing as perfect submission to arbitrary rule among domestics in this country never has and never will be yielded.

The law of kindness and consideration is the only true law, and where this is not efficient, none other will or can be.
As for Mrs.Armitage and her daughters, each one of whom bore herself towards the domestics with an air of imperiousness and dictation, they never reflected before requiring a service whether such a service would not be felt as burdensome in the extreme, and therefore, whether it might not be dispensed with at the time.
Without regard to what might be going on in the kitchen, the parlor or chamber, bells were rung, and servants required to leave their half finished meals, or to break away in the midst of important duties that had to be done by a certain time, to attend to some trifling matter which, in fact, should never have been assigned to a domestic at all.