n her own hands.

[Illustration: SIR W.: "WOMEN ARE SO INDISCREET."]

LADY FLO (_flattered_): Indeed!

KITTY: Indeed! I must say that no one could appreciate Aunt Flo's
virtues more than I, although at the same time I am certain she would
very soon have lost her sweet temper if her husband had been
aggravating, ignorant, domineering!

JEM: Why not call me a savage at once?

KITTY: A savage! Yes! A savage!

LADY FLO: Oh! Kitty! Kitty! Is this the way to make friends?

JEM: Come, Uncle Will! Let us go into the smoking-room! I shall choke
here! (_Exit._)

SIR W.: There's but little hope for them! Little hope! Little hope!
(_Exit, shaking his head._)

KITTY: Now, perhaps, you believe that I have something to put up with?

LADY FLO (_soothingly_): And yet there's no doubt Jem is extremely fond
of you.

KITTY: He has a strange way of showing it! The other morning, after we
had had one of our little scenes, I went down to the stream to find him
when he was fishing. I would even have been willing to try and bait
(_shudders_) his hook. But as I was starting off I met him coming up the
garden, and he stared at me like an avenging god (or demon, I should
say), and asked if I wasn't on my way to matins? Naturally, I did not
contradict him.

LADY FLO: Dearest! You distress me!

KITTY: There's another thing I can't endure! You know I took the pledge,
so as to be a good example to the village people here. Well! Jem is
furious every time I refuse wine at luncheon or dinner. He declares that
I _pose_! Can you imagine such nonsense?

LADY FLO: Well, dear! I confess I sympathize with Jem. I don't think any
really nice women ever take the pledge--do they? I only ask, you know.

KITTY: Why, yes! Of course they do, aunty--when they want to be good
examples. Jem cannot understand this; and, far from taking the pledge
himself, he revolts me day after day by drinking--(_whispers
mysteriously_)--Bass's pale ale!

LADY FLO: Ah! That's bad! But, oh! my dear, if you only knew the proper
way to manage a husband!

KITTY: How could I? For Jem is as unmanageable as the Great Mogul.

LADY FLO: I see you don't realize how the most violent men are those
most easy to subdue. Now, there's your uncle----

KITTY: I always thought him as mild as Moses!

LADY FLO: So he is _now_! But there _was_ a time----

KITTY: Oh! Do tell me all about it!

LADY FLO: Well. There _was_ a time when your uncle imagined he might be
allowed to complai