his troubles when the husband comes home at the end of the day.  It is a sounder practise for him to save her as much as possible from the trials of his business hours; and, incidentally, it is the best kind of mental training for him to put all business cares behind him as he closes the door of his office and goes home.  When it is said that a husband should not fling all the day’s trifling annoyances into the lap of his wife without reflecting that she may have some cares of her own, there is no intention to indicate that a wife should not have a thorough understanding of her husband’s affairs.  Complete acquaintance and sympathy with his work is one of the foundation stones of the domestic edifice.

=THE FAMILY AT TABLE=

Whether “there is company” or whether the family is alone, the linen must be as spotless, the silver as clean, and the table as carefully set as though twenty were coming for dinner.  Sloppy service is no more to be tolerated every day at home than at a dinner party, and in so far as etiquette is concerned, you should live in exactly the same way whether there is company or none.  “Company manners” and “every-day manners” must be identical in service as well as family behavior.  You may not be able to afford quantities of flowers in your house and on your table, or perhaps any, but there is no excuse for wilted flowers or an empty vase that merely accentuates your table’s flowerlessness.  There are plenty of table ornaments that need no flowers.  In the same way the compotiers can be filled with candies or conserves of the “everlasting” variety; silver-foiled chocolates or nougat, or gum drops or crystalized ginger or conserved fruits—­will keep for months!  But the table must be decorated and a certain form observed at the dinner hour; otherwise gray flannel wrapper habits become imminent.  Letters, newspapers, books have no place at a dinner table.  Reading at table is allowable at breakfast and when eating alone, but a man and his wife should no more read at lunch or dinner before each other or their children than they should allow their children to read before them.

=THE TABLE NOT A PLACE FOR PRIVATE DISCUSSION=

One very bad habit in many families is the discussion of all of their most intimate affairs at table—­entirely forgetting whoever may be waiting on it; and nine times out of ten those serving in the dining-room see no harm (if they feel like it) in repeating what is said.  Why should they?  It scarcely occurs to them that they were “invisible” and that what was openly talked about at the table was supposed to be a secret!

Apart from the stupidity and imprudence of talking before witnesses, it is bad form to discuss one’s private affairs before any one.  And it should be unnecessary to add that a man and his wife who quarrel before their children or the servants, deprive the former of good breeding through inheritance, and publish to the latter that they do not belong to the “better class” through any qualification except the possession of a bank account.