parlourmaids

The disembowelled corpse of a dog was left upon the front steps under cover of dark, causing one of the youngest parlourmaids to faint.

Sepulchre Mosse, Kate 2007

'If you're talking about parlourmaids,' said Miss Knight with a little laugh, 'that must have been a very long time ago.

A Mirror Cracked From Side To Side Christie, Agatha 1962

The ninth name had changed, at intervals of about two years, from Norah to Jessie, from Jessie to Gladys, and from Gladys to Ellen: for there seemed to be something fatally marriageable, as well as incurably trochaic, about the Minivers 'house-parlourmaids.

Mrs. Miniver 1939

The butler remained on sufferance because of his grey hairs, but the footmen, who had been rather a feature of the Anselman establishment, had departed, and their places had been filled by half a dozen of the smartest of parlourmaids, one or two of whom were still in evidence.

Kingdom of the Blind 1906

There was a little rustle as one of the new parlourmaids walked smoothly to his side and presented a silver salver.

Kingdom of the Blind 1906

He had also expected a very stiff and capable service by implacable parlourmaids, and the whole thing indeed highly genteel.

Mr. Britling Sees It Through 1906

Road, nearly every window showed a bright light; and I don't suppose I had waited twenty seconds, though they seemed like a quarter of an hour, when the front door flew open and one of the prettiest parlourmaids I have ever clapped eyes upon came running down the path, and asked, even before she had opened the gate, if the lady had arrived.

The Man Who Drove the Car Max Pemberton 1906

That is the only prosperity you see on the stage, where the workers are all footmen, parlourmaids, comic lodging-letters and fashionable professional men, whilst the heroes and heroines are miraculously provided with unlimited dividends, and eat gratuitously, like the knights in Don Quixote's books of chivalry.

Man and Superman George Bernard Shaw 1903

Cambridge, had been alone, but even when she was alone this ceremony of drawing the cloth and putting on the dessert and wine had never been omitted, though since she never took either, it might seem to be a wasted piece of routine on the part of the two noiseless parlourmaids.

The Blotting Book 1903

He sent one of the two parlourmaids upstairs for his carpet slippers out of the carpet-bag, and he passed part of the time in changing his boots for his slippers in front of the fire.

The Grim Smile of the Five Towns Arnold Bennett 1899