ead of wasting the sweetness of their youth over an endless
engagement, must make a study of ways and means, and the wife who will
cajole a shilling into doing duty for a five-shilling piece is a jewel
beyond price.

Again, when times are bad, when the bread-winner falls ill, and the
treasury runs dry, there is no more pathetic and lovely sight than the
brave little wife who struggles and succeeds in keeping the wolf out of
the house.

But in instances where no serious demand of this kind need be made upon
a wife's ingenuity, she is a very short-sighted woman indeed who does
not see the dangers and realize the evils of overzealous economy.

There would be fewer complaints of marriages that result in the wife
being merely an unpaid servant or housekeeper, who cannot give notice to
leave, if brides began as they meant to go on, for no one save those who
have lived through the process knows how difficult it is to introduce a
new regime when once its opposite had been inaugurated and accepted.

'You said you would find L3 10s. a week ample a month ago. Why in the
world do you want L5 now?' asks the husband, whose wife has been
foolishly anxious to impress him with her cleverness as an economist,
and finds she cannot keep up the farce beyond the limit of a few weeks.

Economy may be carried too far from choice. There are women who simply
love saving. They neglect their intellectual life, and abandon all
attempts to keep in the movement, all in order to grind down the weekly
bills. No reward awaits them.

The women who believe themselves perfect because they are economical,
and consider the spring-cleaning of their house the greatest event of
the year, grow old before their time, and are never the companions
modern wives should be to their husbands.

Be good, but never overdo it, I will say to any woman who has the sense
of humour.

CHAPTER VIII

'OMELETTE AU RHUM'

When you are dining with an intimate friend, and an _omelette au rhum_
is served, what do you do? Without any ceremony, you take a spoon, and,
taking the burning liquid, you pour it over the dish gently and
unceasingly. If you are careless, and fail to keep the pink and blue
flame alive, it goes out at once, and you have to eat, instead of a
delicacy, a dish fit only for people who like, or are used to have,
their palates scraped by rough food. If you would be sure to be
successful, you will ask your friend to help you watch the flame, and
you