id Bridget,
sarcastically, "an' 'tis a great honor ye are doin' me t' take me
into th' family this way, but 'tis agin me principles t' be one of
th' family on sixteen dollars a month when there is tariffs in th'
same family. I'm thinkin' I'll stay outside th' family, ma'am. An' if
ye will kindly let me past, I'll go up an' be packin' up me trunk."

"But Bridget," Mrs. Fenelby said, quickly, "I am not through yet. I
knew you couldn't afford to pay the--the tariff. I didn't expect you
to, out of your wages. And if you had just waited a minute I was
going to tell you that, seeing that you will be out of pocket by the
tariff, I am going to pay you eighteen dollars a month after this."

"Well, of course," said Bridget with a sweet smile, "I was only
jokin' about me trunk."

So that was all settled, and Mrs. Fenelby felt at ease, but she did
not think it necessary to tell her husband about the extra two
dollars a month. It came out of her housekeeping money, and she
could economize a little on something else.

"Laura," said her husband that evening, "have you spoken to Bridget
about the tariff yet?"

"Yes, dear," she answered, and he said that was right, and that she
must see that Bridget lived up to it. But he did not tell her that
he had interviewed Bridget while Mrs. Fenelby was upstairs a few
minutes before, nor that he had privately agreed with Bridget to pay
her two dollars a month extra out of his own pocket provided she
accepted the Fenelby Domestic Tariff, and abided by it, just as if
she was one of the family. Neither did Bridget think it worth while
to mention it to Mrs. Fenelby. From the time she was informed of the
existence of the tariff up to the arrival of Kitty Bridget paid into
Bobberts' bank twenty cents. This was the duty on a two dollar hat
that even the most critical mind could not have called a luxury, and
there Bridget's payments seemed to stop. She did not seem to feel
the need of making any purchases just then.

"Kitty, dear," said Mrs. Fenelby, gently, the morning of the damp
foot-prints on the porch, after the men had started for the station,
"that is a pretty shirt-waist you have on this morning."

"Do you like it?" asked Kitty, innocently. "Don't you think it is a
little tight across the shoulders?"

"No," said Mrs. Fenelby. "And I like this skirt better than the one
you were wearing yesterday."

There was no mistaking the meaning of that. The way Mrs. Fenelby
bowed over the bit of se