"Evelyn's only a beginner, dear," said Evelyn's mother sharply, "but
she has the right spirit. No nonsense, regular holidays, and hard
work when they are working is the only way to impress maids. Mary
Underwood," she went on, turning to her sister, "says that, when she
and Fred are to be away for a meal, she deliberately lays out extra
work for the maid; she says it keeps her from getting ideas. No,
Sally," Mrs. Otis concluded, with the older-sister manner she had
worn years ago, "no, dear; you are all wrong about this, and sooner
or later this girl will simply walk over you, and you'll see it as I
do. Changing her book at the library, indeed! How did she know that
you mightn't want tea served this afternoon?"

"She wouldn't serve it, if we did, Aunt Martha," Sandy said,
dimpling. "She never serves tea! That's one of the regulations."

"Well, we simply won't discuss it," Mrs. Otis said, firm lines
forming themselves at the corners of her capable mouth. "If you like
that sort of thing, you like it, that's all! I don't. We'll talk of
something else."

But she could not talk of anything else. Presently she burst out
afresh.

"Dear me, when I think of the way Ma used to manage 'em! No nonsense
there; it was walk a chalk line in Ma's house! Your grandmother,"
she said to Alexandra, with stern relish, "had had a pack of slaves
about her in HER young days. But, of course, Sally," she added
charitably, "you've been ill, and things do have to run themselves
when one's ill--"