“Now, Mammy has always been a pet with me,” said Marie.  “I wish some of your northern servants could look at her closets of dresses,—­silks and muslins, and one real linen cambric, she has hanging there.  I’ve worked sometimes whole afternoons, trimming her caps, and getting her ready to go to a party.  As to abuse, she don’t know what it is.  She never was whipped more than once or twice in her whole life.  She has her strong coffee or her tea every day, with white sugar in it.  It’s abominable, to be sure; but St. Clare will have high life below-stairs, and they every one of them live just as they please.  The fact is, our servants are over-indulged.  I suppose it is partly our fault that they are selfish, and act like spoiled children; but I’ve talked to St. Clare till I am tired.”

“And I, too,” said St. Clare, taking up the morning paper.

Eva, the beautiful Eva, had stood listening to her mother, with that expression of deep and mystic earnestness which was peculiar to her.  She walked softly round to her mother’s chair, and put her arms round her neck.

“Well, Eva, what now?” said Marie.

“Mamma, couldn’t I take care of you one night—­just one?  I know I shouldn’t make you nervous, and I shouldn’t sleep.  I often lie awake nights, thinking—­”

“O, nonsense, child—­nonsense!” said Marie; “you are such a strange child!”

“But may I, mamma?  I think,” she said, timidly, “that Mammy isn’t well.  She told me her head ached all the time, lately.”

“O, that’s just one of Mammy’s fidgets!  Mammy is just like all the rest of them—­makes such a fuss about every little headache or finger-ache; it’ll never do to encourage it—­never!  I’m principled about this matter,” said she, turning to Miss Ophelia; “you’ll find the necessity of it.  If you encourage servants in giving way to every little disagreeable feeling, and complaining of every little ailment, you’ll have your hands full.  I never complain myself—­nobody knows what I endure.  I feel it a duty to bear it quietly, and I do.”

Miss Ophelia’s round eyes expressed an undisguised amazement at this peroration, which struck St. Clare as so supremely ludicrous, that he burst into a loud laugh.

“St. Clare always laughs when I make the least allusion to my ill health,” said Marie, with the voice of a suffering martyr.  “I only hope the day won’t come when he’ll remember it!” and Marie put her handkerchief to her eyes.

Of course, there was rather a foolish silence.  Finally, St. Clare got up, looked at his watch, and said he had an engagement down street.  Eva tripped away after him, and Miss Ophelia and Marie remained at the table alone.

“Now, that’s just like St. Clare!” said the latter, withdrawing her handkerchief with somewhat of a spirited flourish when the criminal to be affected by it was no longer in sight.  “He never realizes, never can, never will, what I suffer, and have, for years.  If I was one of the complaining sort, or ever made any fuss about my ailments, there would be some reason for it.  Men do get tired, naturally, of a complaining wife.  But I’ve kept things to myself, and borne, and borne, till St. Clare has got in the way of thinking I can bear anything.”