"Good boy! What did he talk about to-day?"

"I asked him about all the actresses he has seen. He's going to give
me the autographed photos he has of them. You wouldn't think he'd like
to part with them, but he says he's tired of them all now--they're
nearly all married, and are back numbers. Actresses are only thought
of for a little while, he says."

"That is the natural order of things, and applies to others as well as
actresses. Pretty young girls are not pretty for long. They should see
to it that they are plucked by the right fingers while their bloom is
attractive. The old order falls ill-fittingly on some, but is fair in
the main,--we each have our fleeting hour."

"Yes; but where is there a desirable plucker?" said the practical
girl. "There are scarcely any good matches and the few there are have
so many running after them that I wouldn't give 'em the satisfaction
of thinking I wanted them too."

True, good matches are few. In these luxurious times the generality of
girls' ideas of a good match being very advanced--in short, a man of
sufficient wealth to keep them in petted idleness. There can be no
shade of reproach on women for this ambition, it is but one outcome of
the evolution of civilisation, and is merely a species of common-sense
on their part; for the ordinary routine of marriage, as instanced by
the testimony of thousands of women ranked among the comfortably and
happily married, is so trying that girls do well to try for the most
comfortable berths ere putting their heads in the noose.

"And Dora, where was he all this time?" I asked.

"Oh, he brought Ada Grosvenor home; thought that would spite me. She
was in town too, and you should just hear her after this. The silly
rabbit can't open her mouth but she tells you what this man did and
that one said to her, when all the time it's nothing but some ordinary
courtesy they ought to extend to even black gins."

EIGHTEEN.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

Peace was restored in the Clay household through my interviewing Carry
and offering to teach her music and allow her the use of my piano if
she would do some of Dawn's work for two days during every second
week. The next irritation arose from the male portion of the family.

Now, we had all been so vigorously on political entertainment bent,
that no one had given a thought to Uncle Jake and his doings or
political opinions, or whether he had any, but it transpired, though a