is something that Matthew Arnold urged with great effect in his paper on
that crank of a Tolstoy. He asked what would become of the people who need
the work if we served and waited on ourselves, as Tolstoy preached. The
question is unanswerable."

"That is true; in your conditions, it is unanswerable," said the
Altrurian.

"I think," said Mrs. Makely, "that, under the circumstances, we do pretty
well."

"Oh, I don't presume to censure you. And if you believe that your
conditions are the best--"

"We believe them the best in the best of all possible worlds," I said,
devoutly; and it struck me that, if ever we came to have a national
church, some such affirmation as that concerning our economical conditions
ought to be in the confession of faith.

The Altrurian's mind had not followed mine so far. "And your young girls,"
he asked of Mrs. Makely--"how is their time occupied?"

"You mean after they come out in society?"

"I suppose so."

She seemed to reflect. "I don't know that it is very differently occupied.
Of course, they have their own amusements; they have their dances, and
little clubs, and their sewing-societies. I suppose that even an Altrurian
would applaud their sewing for the poor?" Mrs. Makely asked, rather