You make a good point, Laurie, and one with which I'm sure Mrs. Price would concur. ;-) Good servants were hard to come by in those days and it seems they were even harder to keep.

I thought it was interesting how Bebris handled this. At first we only saw how inept the servants all were and that they seemed to be hired according to neediness. But I saw the rewards of it at the time of the fire. As soon as Lizzy raised the alarm that staff hopped to it! They formed a bucket brigade faster than Lizzy expected and even went back into the burning house to save many articles of furniture. Would the servants we read about in The Gentleman's Daughter have risked their own safety to save the master's house and posessions--or even the master's family, in some cases? Personally, I doubt it.

I was strongly impressed that the fire could have been much worse for the Bingleys if they hadn't earned their servants' extraordinary loyalty. It seemed obvious to me that this was the direct result of their giving people employment when they might not have gotten it elsewhere.