parlourmaid

High up on the wall of the vaulted passage was a junction-box of wires and bells, and when one of these bells was set ringing, calling the parlourmaid upstairs, she took me with her, so that I might peep past the green baize curtain that separated the front of the house from the back.

'The Little Stranger' 2009

So long as the ordinary stage idea of a parlourmaid was a saucy nymph with a feather brush and very short skirts, so long would dramatists strive in vain to exalt her calling.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, March 26, 1919 Various

Porters scuttle to take m'lady's bags, cheeky teenagers are suddenly lost for words, and even Rose, now elevated from head parlourmaid to housekeeper, bites her tongue and nods respectfully when Lady A starts spouting nonsense.

Upstairs, Downstairs and servant porn | Kathryn Hughes 2010

In 1901, when the census describes Tempe as a widow, the family were living at 5 Sinclair Gardens, Hammersmith, the household including four servants a cook, nurse, parlourmaid and housemaid.

S R Boldero Steve 2009

The parlourmaid returned a minute later and took me back downstairs; my mother and I said goodbye to the kitchen staff, and rejoined my father in the garden.

'The Little Stranger' 2009

A young girl in the grey and white uniform of a parlourmaid appeared, out of breath, at the top left-hand corner of the square.

Sepulchre Mosse, Kate 2007

Judd at the Committee; her father reading the paper; the old woman plucking at her hand; the parlourmaid sweeping the silver over the table; and Martin lighting his second match in the jungle ....

The Years 2004

Eugénie was a clever woman of course; but he wished she would get a parlourmaid instead of these

The Years 2004

The girls thought he would surely get drunk before he left the table, and Mrs. Wood ward feared the austere precision of her parlourmaid might be offended by some unworthy familiarity; but no accident of either kind seemed to occur.

The Three Clerks 2004

“And you had a parlourmaid with very prominent blue eyes?”

The Years 2004