To Mrs Dempster, however, my very pronunciation gave offence. It sounded ‘coarse and uncouth’, as she put it. ‘Your accent is redolent of the gutter. It is a stench we must scrub away.’

I found it easy enough to adapt. At the Institute, I had sometimes amused my friends by speaking in the manner of the Reverend Gillies or one of the teachers. I soon learned to speak to Mrs Dempster’s satisfaction, but a part of me felt I was being tamed and resented it. I resolved that one day I would go out in the world and speak as I pleased.

In the meantime, my old way of speaking was always guaranteed to make Martha laugh; though seldom as much as when I exaggerated my new elocution and pretended to be Mrs Dempster.

I put the back of my hand to my newly clean forehead, feigning shock and outrage.

‘I will not suffer you to speak in such a manner beneath my roof.’

I bathed in the glow of Martha’s amusement. At such times I understood what it must feel like to be on the stage, for one’s performance to delight an audience.

‘Any young woman evincing such shoddy enunciation might just as well present herself in rags, for she will be making plain the squalor of her provenance, no matter if she be wearing the finest silks from Kennington and Jenner.’

Then I saw the change, the brief flash of alarm in Martha’s face, the reddening of cheeks as her eyes turned to the floor.

Mrs Dempster was behind me. She had heard every word.

I turned around slowly. Mrs Dempster did not even speak my name.

‘To your room. At once,’ was all she said.

I retreated up the stairs, one of the dogs scurrying after me.

My room was little more than a cupboard, space only for a bed and a washstand. Nonetheless, I recall how pleased I once was that this little space was mine alone, never having had such privacy. There were times when it served to make me feel isolated, however – no more so than when I had been banished there, awaiting punishment.

I had assumed that my insolence would guarantee exclusion from the afternoon’s events, but I soon realised my error. I could not be excluded, for I was an important part of the tableau. I was to be the polite, smartly presented and grateful stepdaughter who had been elevated by the supreme charity of Mrs Dempster in taking me in and providing me with the opportunity to better myself.

I heard one of the dogs on the boards outside, then the heavier tread of Mrs Dempster, who shooed the creature away. It obeyed, as all the house’s lower creatures did.

She came in, closed the door behind her and turned to face me, only feet away in the cramped little room.