ng at your
door. The idea of paying fourpence for a cauliflower takes me heart out
of me every time I go marketing, and the bacon is no sooner bought, than
it is eaten. Well, I'm willing enough to learn method, but who's to
teach me? Saving your presence, Jack, you're just a beginner yourself!"

Sylvia chuckled mischievously, and her eyes danced with amusement.

"There is a mistress in the art at your very door! Aunt Margaret would
be enchanted to instruct you, and her housekeeping is a marvel of
accuracy. She could tell you exactly how much she spent last year on
soft soap, and the reason why it was more in ninety-six than in ninety-
seven. She could walk about the house in the dark and put her hand on
the blue-bag and the list of last week's washing. She makes lists of
everything she possesses, from household linen to the Christmas cards
which she sends out and receives. Her dresses last for best for four
years before they are turned for afternoon wear, and two years later
they are re-dipped for mornings. They have histories, like her
relations, and make valuable Christmas presents to the charwoman on
their eighth birthday. She thinks I am recklessly extravagant because
my dresses are worn-out in a year!"

"I'll ask her to teach me at once! I'll begin making lists this very
afternoon! I'll practise shutting my eyes and searching for the blue-
bag," cried Bridgie ardently. "Jack dear, I'll be a model housekeeper,
and save so much money that we shall be quite rich."

She was all smiles and complaisance, and sat down for the cabinet
council with an unruffled brow, but, as we all know, it is more
difficult to face one or two definite difficulties than an army of
shadowy deprivations, and when the division of the family income made it
necessary to subtract considerably from her housekeeping allowance, and
to saddle her in addition with several outside expenses, Mistress
Bridget sighed and showed signs of rebellion.

"Such a lot of trouble for such a trifling saving! 'Twill destroy me
altogether to be fussing over every halfpenny. What would it matter if
we were a trifle in debt at the end of the year? Geoffrey would pay a
hundred pounds without knowing it, and be proud to do it into the
bargain!"

"But I won't accept it. He has done quite enough as it is. He has paid
for Pat's training, and will give him the agency as soon as he is ready
to take it, and he paid for Pixie's lessons in Paris. I could