Come Out of the Kitchen! A Romance

								

"Ah," he said, "you were speaking of the manicuring of servants'
nails--"
Mrs. Falkener gave him a severe look.
"I was advising Mr. Crane not to engage any one but the butler."
"Indeed, how very interesting," said Reed. "Your judgment in the matter
is very valuable, madame, I know, but perhaps you do not sufficiently
emphasize the difficulties of getting any servants at all in this part
of the country. In fact, I could not undertake, if these are not
engaged--"
"Well, I could," said the lady. "I could telegraph to New York to my own
intelligence office and have three really competent people here by
to-morrow evening."
For a moment Reed looked profoundly distressed, and then he went on:
"Exactly, I have no doubt, madame. But what I was about to say was that
I could not undertake to rent the Revelly house to a staff of unknown
Northern servants. You see, these two young women have been practically
brought up in the household of Mrs. Crosslett-Billington--an old family
friend of the Revellys--and they know they would take care of things in
the way they are accustomed to--"
"Of course, of course, very natural," said Crane. "I quite agree. I'm
willing to give these people a chance. Of course, Mrs. Falkener, I
don't know as much about these things as you do, but it's only for a few
weeks, and as for their nails--"
"Oh, I can explain that," cried Reed; "in fact, I should have done so at
the start. It's an idiosyncrasy of Mr. Billington's. He insists that all
the servants in the house should be manicured, particularly those who
wait on table, or have anything to do with touching the food."
Mrs. Falkener compressed her lips till they were nothing but a seam in
her face.
"Humph!" she said again, and without another word she turned and swept
out of the office.
Left alone, the two men stood silent, without even looking at each
other, and finally it was Crane who observed mildly:
"Well, you know, they are a little queer in some ways--"
"Take my word for it," said Reed, earnestly, "you will make no mistake
in engaging them all--except that boy, but you can manage him, I have no
doubt. As for the cook, you will be surprised. Her cooking is famous in
three counties, I assure you."
An instant later, the lease was duly signed.
When the motor was safely on its way back to Washington, Mrs. Falkener
gave her companions on the back seat the benefit of her own impression.
One was her daughter, a muscular, dark-eyed girl, who imagined that she
had thoroughly emancipated herself from her mother's dominance because
she had established a different field of interest. She loved out-of-door
sport of all kinds, particularly hunting, and was as keen and competent
about them as her mother was about household management. The two
respected each other's abilities, and managed to lead an affectionate
life in common.
The man on the back seat was Solon Tucker--Crane's lawyer, by