ineering or "contracting," they would have known that it is what we
may style a law of human nature to under-estimate probable expenses. So
thoroughly is this understood by the men of the professions above
referred to, that, after they have formed an estimate,--set down every
imaginable expense, and racked their brains in order to make sure that
they have provided for every conceivable and inconceivable item, they
coolly add to the amount a pretty large sum as a "margin" to cover
unexpected and unthought-of contingencies. But anything of this sort
never seems to enter into the calculations of the people who are so much
tormented with those obstinate "two ends" that won't meet. There is one
sure and easy mode of escape for them, but they invariably hold that
mode to be ridiculous, until in dire extremity they are forced to adopt
it. This is simply to make one's calculations for living _considerably
within_ one's income!

We make no apology for going into the minutiae of this remarkable phase
of human existence, because it is necessary, in order to the correct
appreciation of the circumstances and feelings of good little Mrs
Tipps, when, several weeks after the accident described in a previous
chapter, she sat down in her little parlour to reconsider the subject of
her annual expenditure.

Netta sat beside her looking somewhat pale, for she had not quite
recovered from the effects of her recent illness.

"My darling," said Mrs Tipps, "how _can_ you charge me with having made
an error somewhere? Have I not got it all down here on black and white,
as your dear father used to say? This is the identical paper on which I
made my calculations last year, and I have gone over them all and found
them perfectly correct. Look there."

Mrs Tipps held up in triumph, as if it were an incontestable evidence
of the rectitude of her calculations, a sheet of note-paper so blotted
and bespattered with figures, that it would have depressed the heart
even of an accountant, because, besides the strong probability that it
was intrinsically wrong, it was altogether illegible.

"Dear mamma," remonstrated Netta, with a twinkle of her eye, "I do not
call in question the correctness of your calculations, but I suggest
that there may perhaps be an error of some sort somewhere. At all
events the result would seem to indicate--to imply--that--that
everything was not _quite_ right, you know."

"Quite true, darling," replied Mrs Tipps, who