The Tables Turned; or, Nupkins Awakened. A Socialist Interlude

eerful as a trained nurse might have been, she was disappointed. Justine was simply a nice, honest-looking American country girl, in a cheap, neat, brown suit and a dreadful hat. She smiled app

n to be a little odd, yet bravely, showed her the back stairway and the bathroom, and murmured some

, "and I subscribe to two weekly magazines and

t do the best you can. Mr. Salisbury likes dry toast in the morning-eggs in some way. We get eggs from the milkman; they seem fresher. But you have to tell him the day before. And I understood that you'll do

owed reas

you wish me to manage and to market f

nt a pleading

daughter will do

ate impatience. "I don't begin to know as much ab

he usually spends on the table," said Ju

stronghold of her authority. It seemed terri

ing a set sum." She addressed her daughter. "You see, I've been paying Nancy e

family this size?" Alexandra aske

was busi

ptly. "After that each additional person calls for three dollars weekly in our minimum scal

. "It is never that now, I think. Perhaps twice a week," she said, turnin

harge at the market, and Lewis &

dollars a week, when you think of it. Yes, it probably comes to more.

ell Dad." Alexandra

vate affairs less distressing by so excluding the stranger. "Your father has always been the most generous of men," she said; "he always gives me more money if I ne

mained standing, followed her down to the kitchen, where, with cheering promptitude, the new maid fell upon preparations for dinner. Alexandra rather bashfully suggested

soda or something drying on the sink-board; she took the shelf out of the icebox the instant she opened it, and began

m that evening-nothing sensational in the dinner which was served to the diminished f

in high satisfaction, "and the woman looks like a servant, and acts like one.

ous prostration," and August was made terrible for the loving little group that watched her by the cruel fight with typhoid fever into which Mrs. Salisbury's exhausted little body was drawn. Weak as she was physically, her spirit never failed her; she met the overwhelming charges bravely, rallied, sank, rall

re ready at the appointed hours, whether the pulse upstairs went up or down. Tradespeople were paid; there was always ice; there was always hot water. The muffled telephone never went unanswered, th

dy side porch, shelling peas or peeling apples, or perhaps wiping immaculate glasses with an immaculate cloth at the sink. The ticking clock, the shining range, the sunlight lying

o the day's good work. A clean checked towel would be laid over the rising, snowy mound of dough; the bubbling oatmeal was locked

andra would linger, pleasantly affected by the trim little apartment, the roses in a glass vase, Justine's book lying open-faced on th

Salisbury. There was always a small balance, sometimes five dollars, sometimes one

e!" said the man of the house more

e. "You don't notice it, but I know. You have kidney stews, and onion soup

eased," he said, in real admi

ege," Justine assured him. "I'm just doin

nd it's been waiting a long

rs three times a day. While she was enjoying them, Mrs. Salisbury liked to draw out her clever maid, and the older woman and the young one had many a pleasant talk togethe

sins of that name. We are all given names when we go to college and take them with us. Until the work is recognize

?" Mrs. Salisbury felt this to be reall

was given me as a num

"Ouch!" would have fallen had somebody dropped a lighted match on her hand. "I h

, and now Justine stood u

names," she reiterated simply. "Will you let

oked a little thoughtful as Justine walked away. There is no real re

said Mrs. Salisbury, turning comfortably in her

ood; potatoes became a nightly surprise, macaroni was never the same, rice had a dozen delightful roles. Because the family enjoyed her maple custard or almond cake, she did not, as is the habi

e as good as anything else she cooked; her artful combinations, her garnishes of pastry, her illusive seasoni

bought. She always carried a large market basket on her arm on these trips, and something in her trim, strong figure and clean gray gown, as she started off, appealed to a long-slumbering sen

oom gay with flowers. Dinner was a little triumph, and after dinner she was escorted to a deep c

dear border!" she said. "And everything feeling so clean! And my darling girl writing letters and seeing people all these weeks! And my boys s

n, and smiled at the pretty group, mother and father, daught

nt white ones. "Do believe that I appreciate it," she said. "It has been a comfort to me, even when I was sickest, even when I apparently didn't kno

inger pressure warmly,

accept a little chorus of thanks from the other members of the family

ater. "She handles all the little monthly bills, telephone and gas

ne? Go on that way, for a wh

sy for a while. By degrees you can take just as

ly, "don't worry about that! It will all c

ies that rose up on every side of her; Sandy's frocks for the fall, the boys' school suits, calls that must

ring number of new names to their lists of favorite dishes. Justine was asked over and over again for her Manila curry, her beef and kidney pie, her scones and German

plead when a company dinner was under discussion. "Let's

and with what delightful leisure, she prepared for them. Two or three days beforehand her cake-making, silver-poli

d, and Owen Sargent was invited by Sandy to make the group an even eight. This was as many as the family table accommodated comfortably, and seemed quite an event. Ordinarily the mistress of the house would have been fussing for some days beforehand, in her anxi

nt that the daughter of the house must spend at least an hour every morning in bed-making, and perhaps another fifteen minutes in that mysteriously absorbing business known as "straightening" t

ng Woods Country Club, two miles away from River Falls, and Sandy, who was rather proud of her membership in this very smart organization, did not want to miss a moment of it. Breakfast w

had breakfast in bed. Mrs. Salisbury came downstairs at about ten o'clock to find the dining-room airing after a sweeping; curtains pinne

y the way, Justine, I see that Miss Alexandra has gone off again, without touching the living room. Yesterday I straightened it a litt

hought she said she would not,"

mitted, a little flatly. "She put her room and her

annoyance rising in her heart. It was all very well for Sandy to help out a

dow curtains were pinned back for more air, and the coverings of the twin beds thrown back and trailing on the floor. Fifteen minutes' brisk work would have straightened the whole, but Mrs. Salisbury could not spare the time just then. The morning was ru

n o'clock, but when she came back, nearly two hours later, it was distinctly an annoyance to find her bedroom still untouched. She w

r, and no reason in the world why Justine should not do it. The girl was not overworked, and she was being paid thirty-seven dol

ice woman to ask a maid the simplest thing in the world, if sh

onversations with maids! Why couldn't I just step to the pantry door and say, in a matter-of-fact tone, 'I'm afraid I must ask you to put the sitting-room in order, Justine. Miss Sandy has apparently fo

se," was her final summing up. She went out to

tchen, was writing a letter. Sheets of paper were strewn on the scoured white wood of the kitchen table; the writer, her chin cupped i

lained, "so that I can catc

stood she could see piles of plates already neatly ranged in the warming oven, peeled potatoes were soaking in ice wat

rist, "so I may be as late as five. But I'll bring some flowers when I come. Miss Alexandra will probably be at home by that time, but if she isn't-if she isn't, perhaps you would just go in and straighten th

e. She looked at Justine expectantly, con

ut that's against one of our rule

that," Mrs. Salisbury agreed q

addening gentleness of the person prepared t

'm sorry; but I a

sbury said coldly. She used a tone of quiet dignity; but she knew that she had had th

keeping to the letter of t

e, nor how I like my house to be run, is

t perhaps they won't be so firm about it as soon as

eed with a short laugh, "inasmuch as they CANNO

remark at least she had scored, yet very angry at

ps up, I shall simply have

ng; it was unbelievable; but that neglected half hour of work threatened to wreck he

d to herself. And, after a moment's indecision, she dec

med her that she was wanted at the telephone. Her voice sou

o look in at the Athenaeum-" Mrs. Salisbury began, a little inconse

w," said San

oming back

ards, I guess, or with one of the girls. Owen and the Brice boy ar

h little dancer, she had managed to captivate one or two of the prominent matrons of the club, and

and mind in anything but a hospitable or joyous state, she set about the task of putting the sitting room in order. She abandoned once

blame herself. So Justine got the full measure of her disapproval, and, while she worked, Mrs. Salisbury refreshed her

s no hesitating, no hitch; the service was swift, noiseless, unobtrusive.

a little uncomfortable in his evening clothes, and confided

idiot like Owen," said Sandy to her mother, when the older woman had c

suspect you of a tendresse in that

brows. "I'm mad about him, I'd marr

e that tone," her mother said uncomfortably

mit it! But I like Owen best, and it makes me sick to see a person like Rose Satterlee annexing him. She'll make him utterly wretched; she's that sort. Whereas I am really decent, don't y

adful they are," she went on, "but at least I needn't have my own daughter show such a lack of-of delicacy and of refinement." And in the dead s

g as she hooked the filmy pink and silver of he

t of it! And, honestly now, you

rom the room. "No right!" she echoed, more in pity than anger. "Well, really, I wonder sometimes what we are coming to! No right to ask my servant,

is old position as something between a brother and a lover, full of admiring great laughs for Sandy and boyish confidenc