wife--you must go to an agent. What! don't
you know that an agent is a man acting for you with an interest opposed
to yours? Employing an agent! it is like a Trojan seeking the aid of
a Greek. You needn't cry, Mrs. Staines; your husband has been let in
deeper than you have. Now, you are young people beginning life; I'll
give you a piece of advice. Employ others to do what you can't do,
and it must be done; but never to do anything you can do better for
yourselves! Agent! The word is derived from a Latin word 'agere,' to
do; and agents act up to their etymology, for they invariably DO the
nincompoop that employs them, or deals with them, in any mortal way. I'd
have got you that beastly little Bijou for ninety pounds a year."

Uncle Philip went away crusty, leaving the young couple finely mortified
and discouraged.

That did not last very long. Christopher noted the experience and Uncle
Phil's wisdom in his diary, and then took his wife on his knee, and
comforted her, and said, "Never mind; experience is worth money, and
it always has to be bought. Those who cheat us will die poorer than we
shall, if we are honest and economical. I have observed that people are
seldom ruined by the vices of others; these may hurt them, of course;
but it is only their own faults and follies that can destroy them."

"Ah! Christie," said Rosa, "you are a man! Oh, the comfort of being
married to A MAN. A man sees the best side. I do adore men. Dearest, I
will waste no more of your money. I will go to no more sales."

Christopher saw she was deeply mortified, and he said, quietly, "On the
contrary, you will go to the very next. Only take Uncle Philip's advice,
employ no broker; and watch the prices things fetch when you are not
bidding; and keep cool."

She caressed his ears with both her white hands, and thanked him for
giving her another trial. So that trouble melted in the sunshine of
conjugal love.

Notwithstanding the agent's solemn assurance, the Bijou was out of
repair. Dr. Staines detected internal odors, as well as those that
flowed in from the mews. He was not the man to let his wife perish by
miasma; so he had the drains all up, and actually found brick drains,
and a cesspool. He stopped that up, and laid down new pipe drains, with
a good fall, and properly trapped. The old drains were hidden, after
the manner of builders. He had the whole course of his new drains marked
upon all the floors they passed under, and had several