have
reasons for wanting a bigger house and a more quiet neighborhood--"
Several frantic kisses interrupted the speaker here, but he presently
went on: "Why, you can always move! Meantime, you and Owen are helping
less fortunate people, you're building up a lot of wonderful
associations--"

Well, it was all probably for the best; it would turn out quite
satisfactorily for everyone, thought the mother, sitting in the
darkening library, and staring rather drearily before her. Sandy would
have children, and children must have big rooms and sunshine, if it can
be managed possibly. The young Sargents would fall nicely into line, as
householders, as parents, as hospitable members of society.

But it was all so different from her dreams, of a giddy, spoiled Sandy,
the petted wife of an adoring rich man; a Sandy despotically and yet
generously ruling servants, not consulting Justine as an equal, in a
world of working women--

And she was not even to have the satisfaction of discharging Justine!
The maid had her rights, her place in the scheme of things, her pride.

"I declare, times have changed!" Mrs. Salisbury said to herself
involuntarily. She mused over the well-worn phrase; she had never used
it herself before; its truth struck her forcibly for the first time.

"I remember my mother saying that," thought she, "and how old-fashioned
and conventional we thought her! I remember she said it when Mat and I
went to dances, after we were married; it seemed almost wrong to her!
Dear me! And I remember Ma's horror when Mat went to a hospital for her
first baby. 'If there is a thing that belongs at home,' Ma said, 'it
does seem to me it's a baby!' And my asking people to dinner by
telephone, and the Fosters having two bathrooms in their house--Ma
thought that such a ridiculous affectation! But what WOULD she say now?
For those things were only trifles, after all," Mrs. Salisbury sighed,
in all honesty. "But NOW, why, the world is simply being turned upside
down with these crazy new notions!" And again she paused, surprised to
hear herself using another old, familiar phrase. "Ma used to say that
very thing, too," said Mrs. Salisbury to herself. "Poor Ma!"

THE END

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