gnity than his."

"Of course. Haven't I always said that women would make the best
architects if they had a fair chance? Didn't you make the plans of this
house? Hasn't it been all our fancy painted and a great deal more?
There isn't a stick nor a stone, a brick nor a shingle that I would
have changed if we were to build it again."

"And haven't I always said that men were more conservative than women?
_I_ would be glad to change everything there is in the house to build
it all over again, and build it differently."

"Oh the inconstancy of women! Even the moon is more constant, for her
changes are only superficial and temporary."

"When I say; 'I have changed my mind,' it is only another way of
saying, 'I am wiser to-day than I was yesterday.'"

"I understand; what a Jacob's ladder of wisdom you must be! All right;
change your mind every day, grow wiser and wiser; I will try to keep
the hem of your garments in sight."

"Have you selected a lot?"

"What for?"

"For a new house."

"Bless you, my dear husband, I wouldn't build another house, still less
live in it, for all the wealth of the treasury vaults. Isn't this our
own? Hasn't it always been perfectly suited to our wants? What upon
earth are you thinking of?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. I never think if I can help it. I have
heard that a man ought always to build two houses, one to learn how,
the second to correct the mistakes of the first. I thought perhaps it
was the same way with women."

"This house was exactly right when it was built, it could not have been
improved, but that was ten years ago, and a great many things have
happened in the last ten years; but, then, a great many more will
happen in the next ten, and ten years hence there will be just as many
things to change in the houses that are built this year as there are
now in those that are of the same age as ours."

"But how would you change this house if it could be done by a magic
wand or by the exercise of faith, and without raising a speck of dust
or upsetting the housekeeping affairs for a single minute?"

"I would make it larger for one thing. Our rooms are too small. The
number of rooms a house contains should depend on the number of people
there are to live in it, including all the children, the guests and the
servants, with a certain allowance for contingencies."

"Depending on the hospitality of the family."

"Yes; and whatever the number of rooms, they should be large enough