"You know, Grandma never put on any style, Mother--"

"Her house was always one of the most comfortable, most hospitable--"

"Yes, I know, Mother!" Alexandra persisted eagerly. "But Fanny never
had to answer the door, and Grandma used to let her leave the
tablecloth on between meals--Grandma told me so herself!--and no
fussing with doilies, or service plates under the soup plates, or glass
saucers for dessert. And Grandma herself used to help wipe dishes, or
sometimes set the table, and make the beds, if there was company--"

"That may be," Mrs. Salisbury had the satisfaction of answering coldly.
"Perhaps she did, although _I_ never remember hearing her say so. But
my mother always had colored servants, and I never saw her so much as
dust the piano!"

"I suppose we couldn't simplify things, Sally? Cut out some of the
extra touches?" suggested the head of the house.

Mrs. Salisbury merely shook her head, compressing her lips firmly. It
was quite difficult enough to keep things "nice," with two growing boys
in the family, without encountering such opposition as this. A day or
two later she went into New Troy, the nearest big city, and came back
triumphantly with Lizzie.

And at first Lizzie really did seem perfection. It was some weeks
before Mrs. Salisbury realized that Lizzie was not truthful; absolutely
reliable in money matters, yet Lizzie could not be believed in the
simplest statement. Tasteless oatmeal, Lizzie glibly asseverated, had
been well salted; weak coffee, or coffee as strong as brown paint, were
the fault of the pot. Lizzie, rushing through dinner so that she might
get out; Lizzie throwing out cold vegetables that "weren't worth
saving"; Lizzie growing snappy and noisy at the first hint of
criticism, somehow seemed worse sometimes than no servant at all.

"I wonder--if we moved into New Troy, Kane," Mrs. Salisbury mused, "and
got one of those wonderful modern apartments, with a gas stove, and a
dumbwaiter, and hardwood floors, if Sandy and I couldn't manage
everything? With a woman to clean and dinners downtown now and then,
and a waitress in for occasions."

"And me jumping up to change the salad plates, Mother!" Alexandra put
in briskly. "And a pile of dishes to do every night!"

"Gosh, let's not move into the city--" protested Stanford. "No tennis,
no canoe, no baseball!"

"And we know everyone in River Falls, we'd have to keep coming out here
for parties!" Sandy added.

"Well," Mrs. Salisb