House of Secrets

Notes:

A fairly conventional upstairs-downstairs narrative, from the point of view of a new housemaid in a big hall. The difficulties of hours of hard work for little thanks are compensated by a form of camaraderie among the servants (even though there is a hierarchy there, too). In the way of things, staff are often treated unfairly and with little gratitude by their employers, and are expected to “know their place” even when this is — by any modern standards — unreasonable. An American heiress has a more open attitude and takes Polly under her wing, and the younger daughter Harriett finds in Polly a kindred spirit, lying to take on herself Polly's blame in some mater. Polly in turn gives Harriett the ideas and the courage to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.

A subplot involving an older maid who becomes pregnant by one of the sons of the house is straightforward enough, with no real detail, and the mother — offered money by the (unknown to us) father to have the child aborted — instead leaves the house and is taken into a workhouse after her parents have refused to have her back.