COMMUTER'S WIFE 205 



appear if people would only cease dragging in city 

 hours and conventionalities, or I might even say the 

 hours and conventionalities of other climates and 

 countries. 



In England, city or country, it is the universal 

 custom to wear low bodices to even informal dinners, 

 but that does not make it a suitable habit to intro- 

 duce amid New England rigours. It is sheer folly, 

 as well as the custom of half-past seven or eight 

 o'clock dinner in houses where the same maids, or 

 often a single maid, must be ready to prepare and 

 serve breakfast at seven or half-past the next morn- 

 ing. It is things like these that make the commuter's 

 servants a floating population, and the employers 

 themselves the butt of comic papers. 



Hereabout a few of the summer people have tried 

 to set an electric pace in everything, but long ago 

 father and I agreed that we should keep to simple 

 ways; when I dined from home or others came to 

 us, ! might wear the gayest, brightest gown I could 

 concoct, but never bare my shoulders. For we out 

 of town women of the upper middle class, com- 

 muters' wives especially, do not go often enough 

 to such festivities to acclimate ourselves to changes 

 from flannels to nothing, or to feel at home with 

 topless garments, and they are therefore among us 



