polishing herself into a new housemaid’s elbow.?
I've come across this sentence in a book and could not grasp the meaning of it. Could you please help? Thanks in advance.
The narrator sees the silver candelabras in the dining rooms and thinks;
"Poor Mrs Lloyd, the housekeeper, must have been polishing herself into a new housemaid’s elbow."
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I believe what it's trying to say is, Mrs. Lloyd is working so hard polishing, she is going to get her elbow sore, as if she's just starting out like a new housemaid who hasn't built up the muscles in her elbow to where it's not sore anymore.
It is a variant on housemaids knee, a medical disorder