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244 she must discharge that cook, who she knows will be impertinent to her. And she wonders what the next one will be like. I think you might have had a little patience with her. It is true your mother's household runs like a perfectly oiled machine, but then your mother has been keeping house for fifty years, and this little girl, who, in her white satin and orange blossoms a couple of months ago, you thought must be an angel, has only been experimenting a short time. Just remember that, physically, women are not as strong as men, and that a headache that makes her eyes burn and a backache that makes her wonder if she can walk upstairs, sometimes come to her, forcing her to be conscious of nothing but her physical misery. It isn't necessary for you to say that you like the bad breakfast, but you can encourage her, and hope that she will soon have a better cook, and you could remind her that these are the early days of her housekeeping. That is where your strength ought to come in. That is the time when you should represent to her, not only her husband, but her helper.

Of course she has them. And it is just possible that some of them may not suit you. But don't you think it would be rather nicer for you to