At Home with the Jardines

gel. He was with us a great deal during the first months of our marriage, and he

d sunny plateau. With him rain comes in soothing showers, while rain in my disposition means a soaking, drenching torrent which sweeps away cattle and cot

is my

, keeper of the privy purse, chancellor of the exchequer, fighter of exorbitant bills, seamst

ne. He said that I was obliged to put forth tremendous effort for whatever I achieved. But that was before

ow inexperienced we were, when a chance acquaintance of

that you are goin

id Aubrey

ife engaged

believe she has

't drink, thoroughly competent in every way, and the quaintest character I ever knew. Lived in her las

said A

n walked Mary. I was in a kimono, writing notes and waiting for breakfast to be sent up. Hea

o tell you. Are you

zib

ir," sa

throom again, communicat

ed her. We eyed each othe

n?" I said, lookin

u, but I'

if she knew her place as well as that. Her face beamed; her skin

ld you like to take entir

nto a fit o

d your husban

u would come and

Missis. I wo

at her and lo

ny referenc

ple who have been coming to the house for t

I said. "Shall we take

willing,"

s much flattered as she could possibly be, for

hman could match her temper when roused, and the Billingsgate which passes through the dumb-waiter between our Mary and the tradespeople is enough to turn the colour of the walls. Yet though I have seen her pull a recreant grocery boy in by his hair, literally by his hair, tradesmen, one and all, adore her, and do

s so impressed by her manner and the awful lies she told about the grandeur of her employers that he presented her with a pitcher in the shape of the figure of Napoleon. Some

the baker out of his whole bill for five months because he would not recognize her claim for a receipted bill for eight cents which she had paid at the door. As to her relation to us in a social way, those of you who have lived in the South will understand her privileges, when I say that she is a white "Mammy." Her dear old heart is pure gold, and such her

being an excellent Catholic enables her to accentuate her remarks with exclamations which she sa

employers were people of wealth and with half-grown grandchildren when their magnificent home was finally broken up, you can imagine the change to Mary of living with newly married people, engaged in their first struggle

nk on the lease was hardly dry, when I heard a great noise in the kitchen as of moving chairs on a bare floor and Mary's voice raised in fluent denunciation. I flew to the scene and saw a strange man

!" she was crying, jerking both coat

leg!" he

man that I am, more than any of your young jades,

trouble, Ma

off the electric light without a word of warning, and y

lenly. "I'd show them to you if you'd l

say! If you want a five-dollar deposit from the Missis why didn't you write and give notice like a Christian? Do you suppose w

I'll go to the office and explain, and come

sp on leg and

od pleasure, and Mr. Jardine will be doing the explaining and the running to the office. Make up your

ggo of me,"

y back. The man slammed the little door of the

he basement just as wel

me. She took him by the arm, with a "Come, Missis," and marched him befo

office!" she commanded. The man obeyed

talk to your boss. Tell him what

s all a mistake (Mary sniffed); the man had no such orders (Mary snorted). I could send a

m Mary persistently addressed as "Major." As he turned f

Major?" she said, laughing at him. To my surpri

entertaining him at tea. Then she let him out, and wen

deposits promptly," she said. "But trust Mary Jane Few Clothes to

? I was not very well acquainted with my husband myself, and I was slightly exercised as to whether he would bow his neck to Mary's yoke as meekly as I intended to do or not. I seemed to feel intuitively that Mary was a great and gallant general in the domestic field, and my mother's thirty years' war with incom

ve no such intuition,

w little

Angel came home. When he had gone back to dress,

electric light till after dinner,-excuse me for

repeated. My fathe

ardine!" exp

him my father? Sur

r when I'm talking to myself, because nobody but you

down t

e much in husband

ou believe it, Missis, he wouldn't let me reach up to take the globes off to clean them, nor lift the five-gallon wa

telling him not to help her too much, for fear, after the manner of her kind, she should discover a d

stcoats have been done up at the laundry so scandalous that I'd not have the face to be taking your money if I were that

t faultless order of work that make

not been married long, but I had already learned that there are some moments in a man's life which are not for

as made, I dre

s saved once m

nth does he laugh, and always then at somet

tcoat from my hand

you it pays to complain once in awhile. I wrote

" I said. The

said. "I think we've got a regu

ied, frantically reachi

o spill soup down

pologetically, groping for w

What do you t

hens that stamp their owner's name on each egg. For the privilege of eating these delicacies we pay the Paris price for eggs. Now it would also seem that these hens guarantee at that price to lay and deliver to the purchaser an unbroken, uncracked, wholly perfect egg in

Did she say

a hen.' His reply was inaudible, but he was just going out to his wagon, and he was opening up his heart to the butcher boy as I passed. 'I'd give five dollars, poor as I am,' he said, 'for one look at th

ho was envying the fact that I could persuade A

evenings. The clubs will claim him within six months, and as for Mary-I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll w

d," I cried, my

all lose our husbands,"

ut I am married now to

e your be

ughed. "They are both

e not!"

oor closed, I