Page:Live and Let Live.djvu/77

 she never gave her husband any peace till he took her to France."

"Apropos!" interposed Mrs. Ardley, "I had a letter yesterday from Mary Henry. They have had a horrible time of it lately—been robbed by their servants."

"Bless me, how shocking! do they intend remaining abroad?" "Yes, till the girls are grown. She found her housekeeping interfered too much with their education. She was a Martha, you know, troubled about many things." "Does she intend establishing her daughters abroad?" asked a Mrs. Hyde, who had till now listened in silence.

"No, indeed! She speaks with horror of the state of society in Paris, and says she would rather bury her daughters than marry them there."

"Then there are worse social evils than the household plagues of America?"

"Dear Mrs. Hyde! how sarcastic!" "I did not intend a sarcasm. If the evils we suffer are lighter than those that exist in other countries, we should, I think, endure them without complaint; and since they belong to a condition of society in which our lot and our children's is cast, it might be well to try to rectify them."

"Excuse me!" exclaimed Mrs. Stedman, rising to go, "I have washed my hands of the whole concern, and never shall voluntarily resume housekeeping."

"And excuse me!" said Mrs. Linton, seconding her friend's movement, "I have made up my