stitch to be used in making a seam. A
lady very naturally feels disturbed if she finds that her husband does
not have confidence enough in her to trust her with such details.

"I will make or mend for you whatever you may desire," she might say,
"and I will get for your dinner any thing that you ask for; but in the
way of doing it you ought to leave every thing to my direction. It is
better to let me have my own way, even if your way is better than mine.
For in matters of direction there ought always to be only one head, even
if it is not a very good one."

And in the same manner a gentleman might say when travelling with a
lady,--

"I will arrange the journey to suit your wishes as far as is
practicable, and will go at such times and by such conveyances as you
may desire. I will also, at all the places where we stop, take you to
visit such objects of interest and curiosity as you wish to see. But
then when it comes to the details of the arrangements to be made,--the
orders to servants and commissioners, the determination of the times for
setting out, and the bargains to be made with coachmen and
innkeepers,--it is best to leave all those things to me; for it always
makes confusion to have two persons give directions at the same time."

To say this would be right in both cases,--there must always be _one_ to
command. A great many families are kept in continual confusion by there
being two or more ladies who consider themselves more or less at the
head of it--as, for instance, a wife and a sister, or two sisters and a
mother. Napoleon used to say that _one_ bad general was better than
_two_ good ones; so important is it in war to have unity of command. It
is not much less important in social life.

Mrs. Parkman did not understand this principle. Mr. George had seen an
example of her mode of management a day or two before, in taking a walk
with her and her husband in London. They were going to see the tunnel
under the Thames, which was three or four miles down the river from
Morley's Hotel, where they were all lodging.

"Which way would you like to go?" asked Mr. Parkman.

"Is there more than one way?" asked his wife.

"Yes," said Mr. Parkman, "we can take a Hansom cab, and drive down
through the streets, or we can walk down to the river side, and there
take a boat. The boats are a great deal the cheapest, and the most
amusing; but the cab will be the most easy and comfortable, and the most
genteel. We shall have