d, "I should certainly tell him of it, whether he got
offended I or not. If his friendship could only be retained on these
terms, I would prefer dispensing with the favor."

"The case isn't exactly parallel, Mr. Smith," was my reply. "The
gouty toe and crushing heel are very palpable and straightforward
matters, and a man would be an egregious blockhead to be offended
when reminded of the pain he was inflicting. But it would be
impossible to make Mrs. Jordon at all conscious of the extent of her
short-comings, very many of which, in fact, are indirect, so far as
she is concerned, and arise from her general sanction of the
borrowing system. I do not suppose, for a moment, that she knows
about everything that is borrowed."

"If she doesn't, pray who does?" inquired my husband.

"Her servants. I have to be as watchful as you can imagine, to see
that Bridget, excellent a girl as she is, doesn't suffer things to
get out, and then, at the last moment, when it is too late to send
to the store, run in to a neighbor's and borrow to hide her neglect.
If I gave her a _carte blanche_ for borrowing, I might be as
annoying to my neighbors as Mrs. Jordon."

"That's a rather serious matter," said my husband. "In fact, there
is no knowing how much people may suffer in their neighbors' good
opinion, through the misconduct of their servants in this very
thing."

"Truly said. And now let me relate a fact about Mrs. Jordon, that
illustrates your remark." (The fresh tea had come in, and we were
going on with our evening meal.) "A few weeks ago we had some
friends here, spending the evening. When about serving refreshments,
I discovered that my two dozen tumblers had been reduced to seven or
eight. On inquiry, I learned that Mrs. Jordon had ten--the rest had
been broken. I sent to her, with my compliments, and asked her to
return them, as I had some company, and wished to use them in
serving refreshments. Bridget was gone some time, and when she
returned, said that Mrs. Jordon at first denied having any of my
tumblers. Her cook was called, who acknowledged to five, and, after
sundry efforts on the part of Bridget to refresh her memory, finally
gave in to the whole ten. Early on the next morning Mrs. Jordon came
in to see me, and seemed a good deal mortified about the tumblers.

"'It was the first I had heard about it,' she said. 'Nancy, it now
appears, borrowed of you to hide her own breakage, and I should have
been none the wiser, if