The Yellow and White Agony. 359 



She came " right in," and she stayed on for ten months, when 

 she went the way of all fair maids out West, and married. She 

 cooked capitally, and did all the rough work without a murmur, and 

 was never idle, but she was certainly unconventional. She insisted 

 on " waiting table " at breakfast in a wrapper and curl papers. 

 When I gently broke it to her that my husband objected to this, 

 she remarked that she considered he should know " most enough of 

 womenfolk by this time to guess that they couldn't have a smart 

 curled bang at one o'clock if the hair was not in paper all 

 morning," but she supposed he, like all men, would want his own 

 way, and she didn't mind giving in to his fads. So the curl papers 

 disappeared, but the dressing-gown was never discarded until 

 twelve o'clock. 



Then she went out at odd times, whenever she considered that 

 there should be an interval at her work. She said she had never 

 been accustomed to ask for permission to go out, and she never 

 meant to. Then I argued that even my husband did not go out of 

 the house without informing me of his intention, and if one is to 

 manage a house, one must know the movements of the inmates ; 

 that even were my sister staying with me, she would consider it 

 rude not to tell me when she intended being away, or to go without 

 asking if it were convenient. " Is that so? Well, I see the reason 

 of that, and on that kind of footing I don't mind telling you before- 

 hand." So I had no more difficulty on that score. 



One day, being laid up with bad neuralgia and headache, some 

 callers came, and my husband told the girl to say I was not at 

 home. After they had gone she discovered me on the drawing- 

 room sofa, and immediately rushed into my husband's study with a, 

 " My, what a corker you made me tell ; your wife was all the time 

 in the parlour." 



Her " best man " used to fetch her with a buggy and pair of 

 horses for a drive on Sundays and holidays. When she was 

 married the same one called, and, not finding her in the kitchen, 

 came to ask me where she was. " I thought you had married her," 

 was my answer. " She left here to be married some days ago, and 



