coffee was at least hot, but seemed exceedingly weak.

"I hope now that it's just right," said Mrs. Mumpson complacently, "and
feeling sure that it was made just to suit you, I filled the coffeepot full
from the kettle. We can drink what we desire for breakfast and then the rest
can be set aside until dinner time and warmed over. Then you'll have it just
to suit you for the next meal, and we, at the same time, will be practicing
econermy. It shall now be my great aim to help you econermize. Any coarse,
menial hands can work, but the great thing to be considered is a caretaker;
one who, by thoughtfulness and the employment of her mind, will make the labor
of others affective."

During this speech, Holcroft could only stare at the woman. The rapid motion
of her thin jaw seemed to fascinate him, and he was in perplexity over not
merely her rapid utterance, but also the queries. Had she maliciously spoiled
the coffee? Or didn't she know any better? "I can't make her out," he
thought, "but she shall learn that I have a will of my own," and he quietly
rose, took the coffeepot, and poured its contents out of doors; then went
through the whole process of making his favorite beverage again, saying
coldly, "Jane, you had better watch close this time. I don't wish anyone to
touch the coffeepot but you."

Even Mrs. Mumpson was a little abashed by his manner, but when he resumed his
breakfast she speedily recovered her complacency and volubility. "I've always
heard," she said, with her little cackling laugh, "that men would be
extravergant, especially in some things. There are some things they're
fidgety about and will have just so. Well, well, who has a better right than
a well-to-do, fore-handed man? Woman is to complement the man, and it should
be her aim to study the great--the great--shall we say reason, for her being?
Which is adaptation," and she uttered the word with feeling, assured that