E-text prepared by Al Haines

AT HOME WITH THE JARDINES

LILIAN BELL

Author of "Abroad with the Jimmies," "Hope Loring,", etc.

A. Wessels CompanyNew York1906

TO

Dr. John Sedgwick Billings, Jr.

AND

Dr. John Clarendon Todd

WHOSE COURAGE, SKILL, AND WISDOM

SAVED A PRECIOUS LIFE

Contents

Chapter

I. MARY II. THEORIES III. ON THE SUBJECT OF JANITORS IV. THE ANGEL AND THE AGENT V. HOW WE TAMED THE COOK VI. THE BEST MAN'S STORY VII. THE PRICE OF QUIET VIII. MOVING IX. HOW BEE TRIED TO MAKE US SMART X. OUR FIRST HOUSE-PARTY XI. ON THE GENTLE ART OF WASTING OTHER PEOPLE'S TIME XII. A LETTER FROM JIMMIE XIII. THE BREAKING UP OF MARY XIV. AND THEY LIVED HAPPY EVER AFTER

At Home with the Jardines

CHAPTER I

MARY

I have never dared even inquire why our best man began calling myhusband the Angel. He was with us a great deal during the first monthsof our marriage, and he is very observing, so I decided to let sleepingdogs lie. I, too, am observing.

It is only fair to state, in justice to the best man, that I am a womanof emotional mountain peaks and dark, deep valleys, while the Angel isone vast and sunny plateau. With him rain comes in soothing showers,while rain in my disposition means a soaking, drenching torrent whichsweeps away cattle and cottages and leaves roaring rivers in its wake.But it took Mary to discover that the smiling plateau was bedded onsolid rock, and had its root in infinity.

Mary is my cook!

Yet Mary is more than cook. She is my housekeeper, mother, trainednurse, corporation counsel, keeper of the privy purse, chancellor ofthe exchequer, fighter of exorbitant bills, seamstress, linen woman,doctor of small ills, the acme of perpetual good nature, and my bestfriend.

Cheiro, when he read my palm, said he never before had seen a handwhich had less of a line of luck than mine. He said that I was obligedto put forth tremendous effort for whatever I achieved. But that wasbefore Mary selected me for a mistress, for Mary was my first bit ofpure luck. Our meeting came about in this way.

We were at the Waldorf for our honeymoon, which shows how inexperiencedwe were, when a chance acquaintance of the Angel's said to him onenight in the billiard-room:

"Jardine, I hear that you are going to housekeeping!"

"Yes," said Aubrey, "we are."

"Has your wife engaged a cook yet?"

"Why, no, I don't believe she has thought about it."

"Well, I know exactly the woman for her. Elderly, honest, experienced,cooks game to perfection, doesn't drink, thoroughly competent in everyway, and the quaintest character I ever knew. Lived in her last placetwenty-three years, and only left when the family was broken up. ShallI send her to see you?"

"Do," sai

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