ttie, truly. She more than saves the difference in her
wages."

"You let her buy things and pay tradesmen, do you?"

"Oh, Auntie, why not?" Alexandra asked, amused but impatient. "Why
shouldn't Mother let her do that?"

"Well, it's not my idea of good housekeeping, that's all," Mrs. Otis
said staidly. "Managing is the most important part of housekeeping. In
giving such a girl financial responsibilities, you not only let go of
the control of your household, but you put temptation in her way. No;
let the girl try making some beds, and serving tea, now and then; and
do your own marketing and paying, Sally. It's the only way."

"Justine tempted--why, she's not that sort of girl at all!" Alexandra
laughed gaily.

"Very well, my dear, perhaps she's not, and perhaps you young girls
know everything that is to be known about life," her aunt answered
witheringly. "But when grown business men were cheated as easily as
those men in the First National were," she finished impressively,
alluding to recent occurrences in River Falls, "it seems a little
astonishing to find a girl your age so sure of her own judgment, that's
all."

Sandy's answer, if indirect, was effective.

"How about some tea?" she asked. "Will you have some, either of you? It
only takes me a minute to get it."

"And I wish you could have seen Mattie's expression, Kane," Mrs.
Salisbury said to her husband when telling him of the conversation that
evening, "really, she glared! I suppose she really can't understand
how, with an expensive servant in the house--" Mrs. Salisbury's voice
dropped a little on a note of mild amusement. She sat idly at her
dressing table, her hair loosened, her eyes thoughtful. When she spoke
again, it was with a shade of resentment. "And, really, it is most
inconvenient," she said. "I don't want to impose upon a girl; I never
DID impose upon a girl; but I like to feel that I'm mistress in my own
house. If the work is too hard one day, I will make it easier the next,
and so on. But, as Mat says, it LOOKS so disobliging in a maid to have
her race off; SHE doesn't care whether you get any tea or not; SHE'S
enjoying herself! And after all one's kindness--And then another
thing," she presently roused herself to add, "Mat thinks that it is
very bad management on my part to let Justine handle money. She says--"

"I devoutly wish that Mattie Otis would mind--" Mr. Salisbury did not
finish his sentence. He wound his watch, laid it on his bur