e is packed full of other things she simply cannot avoid, if
she declines to complicate things any further? Our grandmothers didn't
have telephones, or motor-cars, or week-end affairs, or even--for that
matter--manicures and hair-dressers! A good heavy silk was full dress
all the year 'round. They washed their own hair. The 'up-stairs girl'
answered the doorbell,--why, they didn't even have talcum powder and
nursery refrigerators, and sanitary rugs that have to be washed every
day! Do you suppose my grandmother ever took a baby's temperature, or
had its eyes and nose examined, or its adenoids cut? They had more
children, and they lost more children,--without any reason or logic
whatever. Poor things, they never thought of doing anything else, I
suppose! A fat old darky nurse brought up the whole crowd--it makes
one shudder to think of it! Why, I had always a trained nurse, and the
regular nurse used to take two baths a day. I insisted on that, and
both nurseries were washed out every day with chloride of potash
solution, and the iron beds washed every week! And even then Vic had
this mastoid trouble, and Harriet got everything, almost."

"Exactly," said Mrs. Watson. "That's you, Hattie, with all the money
in the world. Now do you wonder that some of the rest of us, who have
to think of money--in short," she finished decidedly, "do you wonder
that people are not having children? At first, naturally, one doesn't
want them,--for three or four years, I'm sure, the thought doesn't
come into one's head. But then, afterwards,--you see, I've been
married fifteen years now!--afterwards, I think it would be awfully
nice to have one or two little kiddies, if it was a possible thing.
But it isn't."

"No, it isn't," Mrs. Crawford agreed. "You don't want to have them
unless you're able to do everything in the world for them. If I were
Hat here, I'd have a dozen."

"Oh, no, you wouldn't," Mrs. Carr-Boldt assured her promptly. "No, you
wouldn't! You can't leave everything to servants--there are clothes to
think of, and dentists, and special teachers, and it's frightfully
hard to get a nursery governess. And then you've got to see that they
know the right people--don't you know?--and give them parties--I tell
you it's a strain."

"Well, I don't believe my mother with her seven ever worked any harder
than you do!" said Margaret, with the admiration in her eyes that was
so sweet to the older woman. "Look at this morning--did you sit d