Year: 1877

been concocted, keep, perhaps, the breast
of a bird and lose n breadth of silk You
put me in mind of old Tom at his cider
barrel, saving at the spile and spilling
at the bung.'"


Very inelegant, my dear, 1 mean
nothing of the sort. If were house.
keeper, / should go in in the morning.


"My morning toilettes are Just as
pretty"


"Oh, hang your toilettes / should
go in in the morning and take my inven-
tory and my measures together. And if
the servants knew You were coming daily
to perform that act of superintendent,
it would make the difference of couple
of dinners a week to u.s."


I'D rather take in sewing. / shouldn't
dare to look them in the face. The idea
of grudging my servants y


'Oh, CLARA, you IRE perfectly hopeless"
then Rex wound up. And at that cried,
and of course then he had to console me ;
and it was a great deal nicer than if we
hadn't quarreled.


I'm sure 1 want to economize,"
said. 81 wear silks, but Kitty makes
them; and think they're cheapest in
TIE long-run, and one feels so much more
comfortable. And then you always used
to like to see me in silks"


"And so 1 do now. Of course do.
1t isn't that I would deprive you of a
single trifie, Clara, my darling, for any
thing in all the world; nothing is to good
for you. It's only-only- Why, you
never scrutinize an account"


lno1 L
ashamed to-"


"Well, the consequence is that you
don't even know the price of mutton,
and the tradesmen whack on any price
they choose. Now what if we should
lose our income by any hocus-pocus p
such things have happened. What
should we do?"


"Do? Why, do what other people
do. Everybody seems to get along.
Creditors allow you something, don't
they-so much day ?" And then Rex
burst out in great laugh, and cried
You are certainly incorrigible, you
lovely little idiot p And wewere off for
q drive, and that was the end of that
lesson.


Every once in a while Reginald used
to have one of these fits of economy.
His mother would say to me, when she
came over: "Acqu1esce in it; agree with
him; do your best to meet his wishes,
when the fit is on; he'll soon get all lie
wants of it.. And so he did.


You know our little place on the
Nauginog beach? Well, it is so lovely
that we determined to make it our per-
manent home, and go to the city and q
hotel for two or three of the worst win
ter months, but give up the city house
and have only one establishment. Gen
eral Durceau's is at the head of the cliff,
and he lives there all the year round, and
Mrs. Gleason's directly adjoining, and
we are down below on the Long beach,
where don't know how many ships have
ietsam, as Rex calls it. Spars come
ashore; bales; bottles holding letters;
drift-wood half ground to powder; once
[ picked up sailors cap, and once, do
you believe, cradle with little baby in
it,sound asleep, and rocking 50 sweetly on
the waves-I did so want to keep it; but,
of course a mother had to turn up, res
cued, too, on the other side of General
Durceau's cliff. Well, one afternoon
Rex and I were walking on the Long
beach, making believe look for the
quicksand. It was after dinner-time-
we had expected Colonel M'Manus, but
he hadn't come-and of course / was
nicely dressed. I always do dress for
Rex, but | had taken unusual pains to-
day. for Rex had some business reasons
for desiring to make an uncommonly
good impression on the colonel. The
colonel was securing charter for some
tremendous dertaking-tunneling Co
topaxi or the Atlantic, OF something of
the sort, sure to make the everlasting
fortune of all included, and Rex wished
to be included; and the colonel was so
irascible, and so important and pompous
and naughty, that we wanted he should
have the best of everything; so in his
absence magnificent dinner was spoiled,
and my superb toilet lost. L had never
worn my dress before, either; it was just
the loveliest shade of royal purple,
melted amethyst, and it was deadened
and half covered with black lace, my
best and dearest, fine as cobweb OF
course it was no dress for beach walking.
Let us have a five minutes stroll"
said Rex. Perhaps the old bloke went
to the other station; I'll send Terence
round;" and I had just thrown on my
scarf, and gathered my dress up out of
harms way-the beach couldn't hurt my
gold cable-chain, nor my pink corals,
born of the sea itself-and had run after
him, We hadn't taken ten steps before
L found that the fit was on, and that he
had it bad. The fact was, that comfor-
table as we were, Rex had become dis
contented among richer people, and was
nursing the idea that he should like to
be millionaire; and there were some
excellent schemes and chances for capt.
tai that he knew about, and it vexed him
to think he had no capital to spare; and
he dwelt on it and dwelt on it. Itseemed
to him SO ignoble to be living on his
grandtather's entailed estate, and to be
making nothing of his own; and as we
spent every penny every year, he decided
that the one way to get any capital was
to save some, and that I was the one to
save it, and if he could only force me
into beginning, the thing would be
done by natural momentum. But there
could he change the spots on tho
leopard?


"See here, +" said he, that afternoon,
as we walked "look at that. Enough
wood to last us the year round thrown
on this shore, and nobody picking up a
stick of it p


cts nothing but chips, said I.


"Chips?" said he. "Let me tell
you, chips make as good blaze as heart
can wish. We could burn these chips
in every CRATE we have and some of
them are goodly pieces"


And go without our beautiful sea-
coal fire -


"our sea-coal costs us thirty dollars