Page 81 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

but boring and silly beyond words. It is dreadful to think
that some people spend their whole decades at such occu-
pations. The woman whom I replaced was quite sixty years
old, and she stood at the sink thirteen hours a day, six days a
week, the year round; she was, in addition, horribly bullied
by the waiters. She gave out that she had once been an ac-
tress—actually, I imagine, a prostitute; most prostitutes end
as charwomen. It was strange to see that in spite of her age
and her life she still wore a bright blonde wig, and darkened
her eyes and painted her face like a girl of twenty. So ap-
parently even a seventy-eight-hour week can leave one with
some vitality.

0 Down and Out in Paris and London