Mrs. Salisbury felt the blood in her face.  Kane Salisbury had been in a bank when she married him; was cashier of the River Falls Mutual Savings Bank now.

She carried away the asters she had been arranging, without further remark.  But Justine’s attitude rankled.  Mrs. Salisbury, absurd as she felt her own position to be, could not ignore the impertinence of her maid’s point of view.  Theoretically, what Justine thought mattered less than nothing.  Actually it really made a great difference to the mistress of the house.

“I would like to put that girl in her place once!” thought Mrs. Salisbury.  She began to wish that Justine would marry, and to envy those of her friends who were still struggling with untrained Maggies and Almas and Chloes.  Whatever their faults, these girls were still servants, old-fashioned “help”—­they drudged away at cooking and beds and sweeping all day, and rattled dishes far into the night.

The possibility of getting a second little maid occurred to her.  She suggested it, tentatively, to Sandy.

“You couldn’t, unless I’m mistaken, Mother,” Sandy said briskly, eyeing a sandwich before she bit into it.  The ladies were at luncheon.  “For a graduate servant can’t work with any but a graduate servant; that’s the rule.  At least I think it is!” And Sandy, turning toward the pantry, called:  “Oh, Justine!”

“Justine,” she asked, when the maid appeared, “isn’t it true that you graduates can’t work with untrained girls in the house?”

“That’s the rule,” Justine assented.

“And what does the school expect you to pay a second girl?” pursued the daughter of the house.

“Well, where there are no children, twenty dollars a month,” said Justine, “with one dollar each for every person more than two in the family.  Then, in that case, the head servant, as we call the cook, would get five dollars less a month.  That is, I would get thirty-two dollars, and the assistant twenty-three.”

“Gracious!” said Mrs. Salisbury.  “Thank you, Justine.  We were just asking.  Fifty-five dollars for the two!” she ejaculated under her breath when the girl was gone.  “Why, I could get a fine cook and waitress for less than that!”

And instantly the idea of two good maids instead of one graduated one possessed her.  A fine cook in the kitchen, paid, say twenty-five, and a “second girl,” paid sixteen.  And none of these ridiculous and inflexible regulations!  Ah, the satisfaction of healthily imposing upon a maid again, of rewarding that maid with the gift of a half-worn gown, as a peace offering—­Mrs. Salisbury drew a long breath.  The time had come for a change.

Mr. Salisbury, however, routed the idea with scorn.  His wife had no argument hardy enough to survive the blighting breath of his astonishment.  And Alexandra, casually approached, proved likewise unfavorable.

“I am certainly not furthering my own comfort alone in this, as you and Daddy seem inclined to think,” Mrs. Salisbury said severely to her daughter.  “I feel that Justine’s system is an imposition upon you, dear.  It isn’t right for a pretty girl of your age to be caught dusting the sitting-room, as Owen caught you yesterday.  Daddy and I can keep a nice home, we keep a motor car, we put the boys in good schools, and it doesn’t seem fair—­”