"Of course!" Mrs. Munger sighed. "If everybody had your _system_, Mr.
Gerrish!" She went on and succinctly expounded the scheme of the Social
Union. "I suppose I can't deny that the idea occurred to _me_," she
concluded, "but we can't hope to develop it without the co-operation of the
ladies of Old Hatboro', and I've come, first of all, to Mrs. Gerrish."

Mr. Gerrish bowed his acknowledgments of the honour done his wife, with a
gravity which she misinterpreted.

"I think," she began, with her censorious manner and accent, "that these
people have too much done for them _now_. They're perfectly spoiled.
Don't you, Annie?"

Mr. Gerrish did not give Annie time to answer. "I differ with you, my
dear," he cut in. "It is my opinion--Or I don't know but you wish to
confine this matter entirely to the ladies?" he suggested to Mrs. Munger.

"Oh, I'm only too proud and glad that you feel interested in the matter!"
cried Mrs. Munger. "Without the gentlemen's practical views, we ladies are
such feeble folk--mere conies in the rocks."

"I am as much opposed as Mrs. Gerrish--or any one--to acceding to unjust
demands on the part of my clerks or other employees," Mr. Gerrish began.

"Yes, that's what I mean," said his wife, and broke down with a giggle.

He went on, without regarding her: "I have always made it a rule, as far as
business went, to keep my own affairs entirely in my own hands. I fix the
hours, and I fix the wages, and I fix all the other conditions, and I say
plainly, 'If you don't like them, 'don't come,' or 'don't stay,' and I