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than nothing, wouldn’t it?"

"Mr Blake, do you mean you’d like me to work for you?"

Mr Blake xi laughed at Sadie's astonished face. "Why not?"

"3ut I'm not very good at that sort of thing. I got the lowest
marks in ^my class for Domestic."

"Marks don't always mean anything. I wouldn't want all that much
done. A bit of clearing up and washing, and maybe you could cook
my lunch?"

"Are you serious?"

"Completely^Absolutely."

"All right," she said slowly, trying to adjust to an image^{the idea} of herself
as^being domesticated. "I'll have a go."

"Good! It'll do me good^{cheer me up} to see you coming in every morning. The
other woman shad a long face and was always complaining about her
back."

^{"You don't need any cherring up, Mr Blake" said Sadie, making him laugh again.}

They agreed on rates of payment; and in addition Sadie would^{was to} be
given her lunch and bus fares.

She insisted^{said that she would like to} start work straight away. Her earlier mood was
forgotten; she was gripped now h by a fever to work^{for action.} Mr Blake went
back to his gardening, leaving her to examine the array of vacuum clecleaners, mops and dusters. She decided to scrub the kitchen floor
first, not that it looked as if it really needed it, but because it
was the kind of job that made her feel virtuous and hard-working.
For Mr Blake she wanted to be hard-working. She sang as she scrubbed
and found pleasure in sitting back on heels afterwards to look at the