y, light, flaky potato, unless it was
irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather
small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like
liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance."

Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet
hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven
knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for
useful arts?"

"Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we
have all been so busy."

"What would be needed?"

"_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some
materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity.

How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful
moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently.

"And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she
continued in a half apology.

"I really think I ought to be more interested in this question than Mr.
Darcy. It supplements my work. While cheap living is an imperative
necessity in times of depression and low wages, I cannot see why we do
not make it more of a study. While we are so ready to copy the vices of
our French neighbors, perhaps their virtues would do us no harm. A
doctor often finds himself quite nonplussed by something in the
preparation of the patient's diet. The old doctrine preached years ago,
on St. Paul's text of 'keeping the body under,' has worked as much
damage as the asceticism of the middle ages. A good healthy body is the
first requisite everywhere; and to keep it so, every one's first duty.
When men began to consider the body a poor, vile thing, to be treated
with contumely, and fed with what would just sustain life, they offered
an outrage to the highest work of God. When people think it is no matter
what they eat, and that no pains need be taken in the preparation, they
have made a big lapse toward heathenism. Confusion of the physical
senses leads to confusion of the moral sense; and weak, miserable bodies
with hysterical nerves, though they may dream dreams, and see visions,
cannot do good healthy work in this world. And your poor people need a
good deal of training on this subject. It must be made an honorable, not
a despised, business. If I were to build houses, I should make the
kitchens large, light, and pretty; and, if any room had to be small and
uninviting, it should be that for the