e for Collier Pratt,
her one ambition was to put her life in order for him,--to pick up the
raveling threads of her achievement and prove to him and to herself
that she was the kind of woman who accomplishes that which she
attempts. In the light of his indefatigable patience in all matters
that pertained to his art--his clean-cut workmanship--his skill in
handling his material--she blushed for the amateur spirit that
animated all her undertakings, and for the first time recognized it
for what it was.

"Gaspard," she said one morning soon after her miracle had been
achieved, "where do you think the greatest leak is? We spend a great
deal too much money in running this place. As you know, that is not
the most important matter to me. Getting my customers properly
nourished with invitingly prepared food is the essential thing, but if
there was a way to adjust the economical end of it, I should feel a
great deal more comfortable in my mind."

"But certainly, mademoiselle, I should like myself to try the pretty
little economies. The Frenchman he likes to spend his money when it is
there, but it hurts him in the heart to waste this money without
cause."

"Am I wasting money without cause, Gaspard, in your opinion?"

"What else?"

"How can I stop it?"

"By calculation of the tall cost of living, and by buying what is good
instead of what is expensive."

"What do you mean, Gaspard?"

Gaspard contemplated her for a moment.

"We have had this week--squab chicken," he said, "racks of little
unseasonable lambs, sweetbreads, guinea fowl and _filet du boeuf_. We
have with them mushrooms, fresh string bean, cooked endive, and new,
not very good peas grown in glass. We have the salted nuts, the
radish, the olive, the celery, the _bon bon_, all extra without pay.
Then you make in addition to this the health foods, and your bills are
sky high up. Is it not?"

"I'm afraid it is, Gaspard. I had no idea I was as reckless as all
that."

"But yes, and more of it."

"What would you do if you were running this restaurant, Gaspard?"

"I would give _ragout_, and rabbits--so cheap and so good too--stewed
in red wine, and the good pot roast with vegetables all in the
delicious sauce, and carrots with parsley and the peas out of the can,
cooked with onion and lettuce, and macedoine of all the other things
left over. Lentils and flageolet I should buy dried up, and soak them
out.--All those things which you have said were needless.-