ty, and as usual made the most of the
opportunity.

"My love," she croaked, "my love!" and up went both hands in elderly
gestures. "But what a lamentable confession! The sphere of a true
woman is Home, and it should be her first duty to master those arts
which are necessary for its comfort. What hired hands can ever minister
to our dear ones so deftly, so efficiently, as those which love has
trained and dutiful affection called to service?"

Eunice gasped and blinked her eyes, overwhelmed by the flood of Peggy's
eloquence, but when she had abstracted the meaning from the high-flown
phrase, her expression altered into one of dubious protest.

"I am not so sure! I am afraid a dinner cooked by my loving hands would
not please father nearly so well as the ones he gets from his hired
domestics. I don't think it can always follow--"

But Peggy was launched on the flood of eloquence, and could not be thus
lightly checked.

"You must learn!" she cried. "You must educate yourself until you are
so efficient that you could fill every domestic position. Even if you
never do the work yourself, you cannot be a good mistress unless you
understand enough of each maid's work to give instructions, and point
out the remedy for defects. A man, my dear, expects to come home to a
comfortable meal, and it is right that he should get it! We women are
above such considerations, but trifling discomforts are more trying to a
man's temper than more serious offences, and they are apt to become
impatient and irritable."

"They are! They are! You should just hear father when--" interrupted
Eunice eagerly, but Peggy silenced her with a wave of the hand. When
she herself had smarted beneath her mother's words of reproach, she had
never imagined that she could have the satisfaction of hurling those
same words at the head of another, and she was enjoying herself so
intensely that she was anxious to prolong the experience.

"Exactly so; and it should be our mission in life to prevent such
friction. There are girls in the present day who sneer at Home Life,
and profess to consider domestic duties as a slavery demeaning to a
woman's dignity, but for my own part I ask no higher sphere. To be
Queen of a Home, Guardian of its happiness, its Architect, Ruler, and
Controller, the Reins of Government grasped within my hands, what more
could I desire?" She gave a toss to her sleek little head, then wheeled
round at the sound of a stifled chu