Marianne, as I always foresaw, is a careful and somewhat anxious housekeeper.  Her tastes are fastidious; she is made for exactitude:  the smallest departures from the straight line appear to her shocking deviations.  She had always lived in a house where everything had been formed to quiet and order under the ever-present care and touch of her mother; nor had she ever participated in these cares more than to do a little dusting of the parlor-ornaments, or wash the best china, or make sponge-cake or chocolate-caramels.  Certain conditions of life had always appeared so certain that she had never conceived of a house without them.  It never occurred to her that such bread and biscuit as she saw at the home-table would not always and of course appear at every table,—­that the silver would not always be as bright, the glass as clear, the salt as fine and smooth, the plates and dishes as nicely arranged as she had always seen them, apparently without the thought or care of any one,—­for my wife is one of those housekeepers whose touch is so fine that no one feels it.  She is never heard scolding or reproving,—­never entertains her company with her recipes for cookery or the faults of her servants.  She is so unconcerned about receiving her own personal share of credit for the good appearance of her establishment, that even the children of the house have not supposed that there is any particular will of hers in the matter,—­it all seems the natural consequence of having very good servants.

One phenomenon they had never seriously reflected on,—­that, under all the changes of the domestic cabinet which are so apt to occur in American households, the same coffee, the same bread and biscuit, the same nicely prepared dishes and neatly laid table always gladdened their eyes; and from this they inferred only that good servants were more abundant than most people had supposed.  They were somewhat surprised when these marvels were wrought by professedly green hands, but were given to suppose that these green hands must have had some remarkable quickness or aptitude for acquiring.  That sparkling jelly, well-flavored ice-creams, clear soups, and delicate biscuits could be made by a raw Irish girl, fresh from her native Erin, seemed to them a proof of the genius of the race; and my wife, who never felt it important to attain to the reputation of a cook, quietly let it pass.

For some time, therefore, after the inauguration of the new household, there was trouble in the camp.  Sour bread had appeared on the table,—­bitter, acrid coffee had shocked and astonished the palate,—­lint had been observed on tumblers, and the spoons had sometimes dingy streaks on the brightness of their first bridal polish,—­beds were detected made shockingly awry,—­and Marianne came burning with indignation to her mother.

“Such a little family as we have, and two strong girls,” said she,—­“everything ought to be perfect; there is really nothing to do.  Think of a whole batch of bread absolutely sour! and when I gave that away, then this morning another exactly like it! and when I talked to cook about it, she said she had lived in this and that family, and her bread had always been praised as equal to the baker’s!”