, "'a
graduate will take entire charge of kitchen and dining room, go to
market if required, do ordinary family washing and ironing, will clean
bathroom daily, and will clean and sweep every other room in the house,
and the halls, once thoroughly every week. She will be on hand to
answer the door only one afternoon every week, besides Sunday--'"

"What!" ejaculated Mrs. Salisbury.

"I should like to know who does it on other days!" Alexandra added
amazedly.

"Don't you think that's ridiculous, Kane?" his wife asked eagerly.

"We-el," the man of the house said temperately, "I don't know that I
do. You see, otherwise the girl has a string tied on her all the time.
People in our position, after all, needn't assume that we're too good
to open our own door--"

"That's exactly it, sir," Owen agreed eagerly; "Mother says that that's
one of the things that have upset the whole system for so long! Just
the convention that a lady can't open her own door--"

"But we haven't found the scale of wages yet--" Mrs. Salisbury
interrupted sweetly but firmly. Alexandra, however, resumed the recital
of the duties of one maid.

"'She will not be expected to assume the care of young children,'" she
read, "nor to sleep in the room with them. She will not be expected to
act as chaperone or escort at night. She--'"

"It DOESN'T say that, Sandy!"

"Oh, yes, it does! And, listen! 'NOTE. Employers are respectfully
requested to maintain as formal an attitude as possible toward the
maid. Any intimacy, or exchange of confidences, is especially to be
avoided'"--Alexandra broke off to laugh, and her mother laughed with
her, but indignantly.

"Insulting!" she said lightly. "Does anyone suppose for an instant that
this is a serious experiment?"

"Come, that doesn't sound very ridiculous to me," her husband said.
"Plenty of women do become confidential with their maids, don't they?"

"Dear me, how much you do know about women!" Alexandra said, kissing
the top of her father's head. "Aren't you the bad old man!"

"No; but one might hope that an institution of this kind would put the
American servant in her place," Mrs. Salisbury said seriously, "instead
of flattering her and spoiling her beyond all reason. I take my maid's
receipt for salary in advance; I show her the bathroom and the
library--that's the idea, is it? Why, she might be a boarder! Next,
they'll be asking for a place at the table and an hour's practice on
the piano."

"Well,