Marchioness

( The ), the half-starved girl-of-all-work, in the service of Sampson Bra and his sister Sally. She was so lonesome and dull that it afforded her relief to peep at Mr. Swiveller, even through the keyhole of his door. Though so dirty and ill-cared for, “the marchione ” was sharp-witted and cunning. It was Mr. Swiveller who called her the “marchione ,” when she played cards with him, “because it seemed more real and pleasant” to play with a marchione than with a domestic slavey (ch. lvii.) When Dick Swiveller was turned away and fell sick, the “marchione ” nursed him carefully, and he afterwards married her.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).