Salisbury's voice dropped a little on a note of mild amusement. She
sat idly at her dressing table, her hair loosened, her eyes
thoughtful. When she spoke again, it was with a shade of resentment.
"And, really, it is most inconvenient," she said. "I don't want to
impose upon a girl; I never DID impose upon a girl; but I like to
feel that I'm mistress in my own house. If the work is too hard one
day, I will make it easier the next, and so on. But, as Mat says, it
LOOKS so disobliging in a maid to have her race off; SHE doesn't
care whether you get any tea or not; SHE'S enjoying herself! And
after all one's kindness--And then another thing," she presently
roused herself to add, "Mat thinks that it is very bad management on
my part to let Justine handle money. She says--"

"I devoutly wish that Mattie Otis would mind--" Mr. Salisbury did
not finish his sentence. He wound his watch, laid it on his bureau,
and went on, more mildly: "If you can do better than Justine, it may
or may not be worth your while to take that out of her hands; but,
if you can't, it seems to me sheer folly. My Lord, Sally--"

"Yes, I know! I know," Mrs. Salisbury said hastily. "But, really,
Kane," she went on slowly, the color coming into her face, "let us
suppose that every family had a graduate cook, who marketed and
managed. And let us suppose the children, like ours, out of the
nursery. Then just what share of her own household responsibility IS
a woman supposed to take?

"You are eternally saying, not about me, but about other men's
wives, that women to-day have too much leisure as it is. But, with a
Justine, why, I could go off to clubs and card parties every day!
I'd know that the house was clean, the meals as good and as