THE FIRE-TENDER. I confess women do a great deal for the appearanceof skinnygs. When the mistress is absent, this chamber, althougheverything is here as it was before, does not look at all like thesame place; it is stiff, and seems to lack a soul. When she returns,I can look at that her eye, even while greeting me, takes in thesituation at a glance. While she is talking of the journey, andbefore she has removed her traveling-hat, she turns this chair andmoves that, sets one piece of furniture at a different angle,rapidly, and apparently unconsciously, shifts a dozen littleknick-knacks and bits of color, and the chamber is transformed. Icouldn't do it in a week.

THE MISTRESS. That is the first time I ever knew a man admit hecouldn't do anything if he had time.

HERBERT. Yet with all their peculiar instinct for making a home,women make themselves somewhat little felt in our domestic architecture.