and help her to forget all the trouble she had known, as far as
possible. Just as if spoiling her like that, and giving her false ideas of
her importance, could be a good plan. Not that it will last. She is a
pauper, and will be made to see that she is one, sooner or later. She has
nothing but what he gives her, I know, for I have asked her; but she would
not tell me why she separated from her husband. Americans are so absurdly
secretive and sensitive! Do you know, she was vexed by the inquiry? A
great mistake, as I told her, to get rid of him, unless he was a dangerous
brute: men are so useful, and 'grass-widows,' as they say here, are always
looked down upon. Did you ever know anything so idle as those Brown women?
The men here are very active and 'go-ahead,' as they call it, but the
women seem to do one of two things,--either they hold their hands
altogether and are a thousand times more idle than any queen or duchess,
or they work themselves to death, and are cooks, sempstresses, maids,
housemaids, nurses, governesses, ladies, and a dozen other things rolled
into one,--poor things! Thank heaven I am not an American lady."

"I see what you mean," said Miss Noel. "That dear, sweet girl Bijou has
had no practical training whatever. She was amazed that I should make
Ethel dye her white kid slippers (when they were soiled) for morning use;
and when she saw me getting up some dainty bits of old point that I do not
trust to Parsons, she asked me why I bothered with the old stuff and
didn't buy new. She has absolutely no idea of the value of money or of
household management. On the other hand, that little Mrs. Grey, their
friend, told me that she did all the sewing for her twelve children; and
Mrs. Grey has not taken a holiday of even a few weeks for twenty years. I
can't think how it is they don't break down altogether."

But it was the children of the Brown household that awakened the liveliest
surprise in the minds of these ladies,--an astonishment wholly free from
admiration or approval, for they were children of a type with which
Americans are sadly familiar, but which had never come under their notice
before. The little Graysons were utterly undisciplined, and got their own
way in everything. Their grandfather, aunt, mother, and nurses combined
were powerless to control them, and would give them anything but what they
most needed. They pervaded the whole house, and were the hub of it; they
ate at all hours, and of wha