Men rarely appreciate in advance to the full extent the
extra cost of married life, and Littleton, though intending to be
prudent, found his bills larger than he had expected. He was able to pay
them promptly and without worry, but he was obliged to make evident to
Selma that the margin over and above their carefully considered expenses
was very small. The task of watching the butcher's book and the
provision list, and thinking twice before making any new outlay, was
something she had not bargained for. All through her early life as a
girl, the question of money had been kept in the background by the
simplicity of her surroundings. In her country town at home they had
kept no servants. A woman relative had done the work, and she had been
free to pursue her mental interests and devote herself to her father.
She had thought then that the existence of domestic servants was an act
of treason against the institutions of the country by those who kept
them. Yet she had accepted, with glee, the hired-girl whom Babcock had
provided, satisfying her own democratic scruples by dubbing her "help,"
and by occasionally offering her a book to read or catechising her as to
her moral needs. There is probably no one in the civilized world more
proud of the possession of a domestic servant than the American woman
who has never had one, and no one more prompt to consign her to the
obscurity of the kitchen after a feeble pretence at making her feel at
home.
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