ed to."

He still smiled, his gentle old man's smile which somehow gave her
confidence.

"Madam won't sye that after a dye or two. It's new to 'er yet, of
course; but if she'll always remember that I'm 'ere, to myke
everythink as easy as easy----"

"But what are you goin' to do, with no cook, and no chambermaid----?"

Standing with the corner of the table between him and her, he was
saying to himself, "If Mr. Rash could only see 'er lookin' up like
this--with 'er eyes all starry--and her cheeks with them dark-red
roses--red roses like you'd rubbed with a little black...." But he
suspended the romantic longing to say, aloud:

"If madam will permit me I'll tyke my measures as I've wanted to tyke
'em this long spell back."

Madam was not to worry as to the three women who were leaving the
house, inasmuch as they had long been intending to leave it. Both Mrs.
Courage and Jane, having graduated to the stage of "accommodating,"
were planning to earn more money by easier work. Nettie, since coming
to America, had learned that housework was menial, and was going to be
a milliner.

Madam's remorse being thus allayed he told what he hoped to do for
madam's comfort. There would be no more women in the house, not till
madam herself brought them back. An English chef who had lost an eye
in the war, and an English waiter, ready to do chamberwork, who had
left a foot on some battlefield, were prepared under Steptoe's
direction to man the house. No woman whose household cares had not
been eased by men, in the European fashion, knew what it was to live.
A woman waited on by women only was kept in a state of nerves. Nerves
were infectious. When one woman in a household got them the rest were
sooner or later their prey. Unless strongly preventative measures were
adopted they spread at times to the men. America was a dreadful
country for nerves and it mostly came of women working with women;
whereas, according to Steptoe's psychology, men should work with women
and women with men. There were thousands of women who were bitter in
heart at cooking and making beds who would be happy as linnets in
offices and shops; and thousands of men who were dying of boredom in
offices and shops who would be in their element cooking and making
beds.

"One of the things the American people 'as got back'ards, if madam'll
allow me to sye so, is that 'ouse'old work is not fit for a white man.
When you come to that the American people ain't got a sen