was a candid though
obtuse soul; "the result is unsatisfactory, eminently so; yet I cannot
charge myself with careless omissions. See--here it is; on one side are
my receipts. Your dear father always impressed it _so_ earnestly on me
that I should keep the receipts of money on one side of the accounts,
and the payments on the other. I never could remember, by the way, on
which side to put the receipts, and on which the payments, until he hit
on the idea of making me contradict myself, and then I should be sure to
keep right. He used to say (how well I remember it), `Now, darling,
this is the way: Whenever you receive a sum of money to enter in your
cash-book, always say to yourself, What side shall I put it on? If your
mind suggests on the right, at once say No--because that would be
wrong--right being _wrong_ in _this_ case,' and he did use to laugh so
over that little pleasantry."

Mrs Tipps' gravity deepened as she recalled these interesting lessons
in book-keeping.

"Yes," she continued, with a sigh, "and then he would go on to say, that
`if it was wrong to go to the right, of course it must be right to go
the other way.' At first I used to be a good deal puzzled, and said,
`But suppose my mind, when I receive a sum of money, should suggest
putting it on the _left_, am I to contradict myself _then_?' `Oh no!'
he would say, with another laugh, `in that case you will remember that
your mind is to be _left_ alone to carry out its suggestion.' I got to
understand it at last, after several years of training, but I never
_could_ quite approve of it for it causes so much waste of paper. Just
look here!" she said, holding up a little account-book, "here are all
the right pages quite filled up, while all the left pages are blank. It
takes only four lines to enter my receipts, because you know I receive
my money only once a quarter. Well, that brings me back to the point.
Here are all the receipts on one side; my whole income, deducting
income-tax--which, by the way, I cannot help regarding as a very unjust
tax--amounts to two hundred and fifty pounds seventeen shillings and
two-pence. Then here you have my paper of calculations--everything set
down--rent, taxes, water rates, food, clothing, coals, gas, candles,
sundries (sundries, my darling, including such small articles as soap,
starch, etcetera); nothing omitted, even the cat's food provided for,
the whole mounting to two hundred and forty-five pounds. You s