"Well--" the lady was still a little unsatisfied. "As if they didn't
have privileges enough now!" she said. "It's the same old story: we
are supposed to be pleasing them, not they us!"

"'In a family where no other maid is kept,'" read Alexandra, "'a
graduate will take entire charge of kitchen and dining room, go to
market if required, do ordinary family washing and ironing, will
clean bathroom daily, and will clean and sweep every other room in
the house, and the halls, once thoroughly every week. She will be on
hand to answer the door only one afternoon every week, besides
Sunday--'"

"What!" ejaculated Mrs. Salisbury.

"I should like to know who does it on other days!" Alexandra added
amazedly.

"Don't you think that's ridiculous, Kane?" his wife asked eagerly.

"We-el," the man of the house said temperately, "I don't know that I
do. You see, otherwise the girl has a string tied on her all the
time. People in our position, after all, needn't assume that we're
too good to open our own door--"

"That's exactly it, sir," Owen agreed eagerly; "Mother says that
that's one of the things that have upset the whole system for so
long! Just the convention that a lady can't open her own door--"

"But we haven't found the scale of wages yet--" Mrs. Salisbury