one in the morning
`` And as for the affections , '' added Maria , with a sigh , `` how gross , and even tormenting do they become , unless regulated by an improving mind ! The culture of the heart ever , I believe , keeps pace with that of the mind . But pray go on , '' addressing Jemima , `` though your narrative gives rise to the most painful reflections on the present state of society . '' `` Not to trouble you , '' continued she , `` with a detailed description of all the painful feelings of unavailing exertion , I have only to tell you , that at last I got recommended to wash in a few families , who did me the favour to admit me into their houses , without the most strict enquiry , to wash from one in the morning till eight at night , for eighteen or twenty-pence a day . On the happiness to be enjoyed over a washing-tub I need not comment ; yet you will allow me to observe , that this was a wretchedness of situation peculiar to my sex . A man with half my industry , and , I may say , abilities , could have procured a decent livelihood , and discharged some of the duties which knit mankind together ; whilst I , who had acquired a taste for the rational , nay , in honest pride let me assert it , the virtuous enjoyments of life , was cast aside as the filth of society . Condemned to labour , like a machine , only to earn bread , and scarcely that , I became melancholy and desperate .