‘Very well. I will take you to the home myself and I think the contribution I have made will ensure that a bed is found for you. After that, it is up to you to prove that you will live up to your promise. As to you, May,’ he turned to her, ‘you had better go back to the house now with Nan and see what needs to be done to cleanse your room – and I would recommend also that you pay a visit to the bathhouse. Nan will give you the money and I will recompense her. Is that agreeable to you, Nan?’

‘Seems to me they are both getting off lightly,’ Nan remarked. ‘You should be thankful, both of you, that Mr Freeman is a man known for his philanthropy. Any other employer would have seen you both on the streets. Come along, May. We’ve a lot of work to do.’

Walking back to the house, May knew that she was going to have to work very hard to regain Nan’s good opinion. It distressed her to think what she had lost, but she could not see what other course she might have taken. It was all very well for Mr Freeman to say she should have gone to him, but how was she to know that he would take such a generous approach to the problem? But she should have known, she told herself, remembering his kindness to her. She resolved to do all in her power to deserve the reprieve she had been given.

She was soon given the opportunity to put her resolve into action. Back at the house she was instructed to light the fire under the copper and then she had to carry all her bedding and spare clothing down to the kitchen and put it in the copper to boil. Then she and Nan carried the mattress down into the little garden and beat it energetically. While the clothes were boiling, under Nan’s supervision, she pulled out the bed and the washstand and scrubbed every corner and crevice with an evil smelling liquid that Nan produced from a cupboard. That done, it was time to haul the clothes out of the copper, put them through the mangle and hang them out to dry. By the time she was finished she was as tired as she had ever been.

‘Right,’ Nan declared, when she was satisfied. ‘Off to the bathhouse with you.’