Former housekeeper's friendly conversation with girl (10)
I believe the answer is:
chatelaine
'former housekeeper's' is the definition.
(historical term for a housekeeper)
'friendly conversation with girl' is the wordplay.
'friendly conversation' becomes 'chat' (a chat is a friendly or casual conversation).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'girl' becomes 'Elaine' (girl's name).
'chat'+'elaine'='CHATELAINE'
(Other definitions for chatelaine that I've seen before include "As keyholder" , "Woman running a household" , "formerly the mistress of a castle" , "Castle keeper" , "Lady of the house" .)