e was in
the habit of doing. She found the doctor's wife standing by the
back-parlor window looking out on the garden. When the old lady had
seated herself she immediately proceeded to business.

"Well, Kitty," said she, "what sort of a time did you have yesterday?"

"A very discouraging and disagreeable one," said Mrs. Tolbridge. "I might
just as well have stayed at home."

"You don't mean to say," asked Miss Panney, "that nobody answered your
advertisement?"

"When I reached the rooms of the Non-Resident Club, where the applicants
were to call--"

"That's the first time," interrupted Miss Panney, "that I ever heard that
that Club was of the slightest use."

"It wasn't of any use this time," said the other; "for although I found
several women there who came before the hour appointed, and at least a
dozen came in the course of the morning, not one of them would do at
all. I was just now looking out at our asparagus bed, and wondering if
any of those beautiful heads would ever be cooked properly. The woman in
our kitchen knows that she is to depart, and she is in a terribly bad
temper, and this she puts into her cooking. The doctor is almost out of
temper himself. He says that he has pretty good teeth, but that he
cannot bite spite."

Miss Panney now appeared to be getting out of temper.

"I must say, Kitty," she said, in a tone of irritation, "that I do not
understand how it was that out of the score or more of applicants, you
could not find a better cook than the good-for-nothing creature you have
now. What was the matter with them?"

"Everything, it seemed to me," answered Mrs. Tolbridge. "Now here
is Dora. She was with me yesterday, and you can ask her about the
women we saw."

Miss Panney attached no value whatever to the opinions, in regard to
domestic service, of the young lady who had just entered the room, and
she asked her no questions. Miss Bannister, however, did not seem in the
least slighted, and sat down to join the chat.

"I suppose," said Miss Panney, sarcastically, "that you tried to find
that woman that the doctor used to say he wanted: a woman who had
committed some great crime, who could find no relief from her thoughts
but in constant work, work, work."

Mrs. Tolbridge smiled.

"No, I did not look for her; nor did I try to find the person who was of
a chilly disposition and very susceptible to draughts. We used to want
one of that sort, but she should be a waitress. But, seriously,