People call them dear, but their work will
prove cheapest in the end, and there is an air and style about
their things that can be told anywhere. Of course, you won't go to
any extravagant lengths,--simplicity is a grace of itself."

The waters of the family council were troubled when Jenny, flaming
with enthusiasm, brought home the report of this conversation. When my
wife proceeded, with her well-trained business knowledge, to compare
the prices of the simplest elegancies recommended by Aunt Easygo with
the sum total to be drawn on, faces lengthened perceptibly.

"How _are_ people to go to housekeeping," said Jenny, "if everything
costs so much?"

My wife quietly remarked that we had had great comfort in our own
home,--had entertained unnumbered friends, and had only ingrain
carpets on our chambers and a three-ply on our parlor, and she doubted
if any guest had ever thought of it,--if the rooms had been a shade
less pleasant; and as to durability, Aunt Easygo had renewed her
carpets oftener than we. Such as ours were, they had worn longer than
hers.

"But, mamma, you know everything has gone on since your day. Everybody
must at least approach a certain style nowadays. One can't furnish so
far behind other people."

My wife answered in her quiet way, setting forth her doctrine of a
plain average to go through the whole establishment, placing
parlors, chambers, kitchen, pantries, and the unseen depths of
linen-closets in harmonious relations of just proportion, and
showed by calm estimates how far the sum given could go towards
this result. _There_ the limits were inexorable. There is nothing so
damping to the ardor of youthful economies as the hard, positive
logic of figures. It is so delightful to think in some airy way
that the things we like best are the cheapest, and that a sort of
rigorous duty compels us to get them at any sacrifice. There is no
remedy for this illusion but to show by the multiplication and
addition tables what things are and are not possible. My wife's
figures met Aunt Easygo's assertions, and there was a lull among
the high contracting parties for a season; nevertheless, I could see
Jenny was secretly uneasy. I began to hear of journeys made to far
places, here and there, where expensive articles of luxury were
selling at reduced prices. Now a gilded mirror was discussed, and
now a velvet carpet which chance had brought down temptingly near
the sphere of financial possibility. I thought