"O not at all! come in and sit down. You'll find it pleasanter there by the window. 'Dishes?' Why, that is a dish, and that and that," pointing to them. "I see. The word 'dishes' is not a generic term in Virginia, but applies only to platters and vegetable dishes. What do you call them in the aggregate, Cousin Sudie? I mean plates, platters, cups, saucers, and everything." "Why 'things,' I suppose. We speak of 'breakfast things,' 'tea things,' 'dinner things.' But why were you astonished to see me washing them, Cousin Robert?" "Perhaps I ought to have known better, but the fact is I had an impression that Southern ladies were wholly exempt from all work except, perhaps, a little embroidery or some such thing." "O my! I wish you could see me during circuit court week, when Uncle Carter and Cousin Billy bring the judge and the lawyers home with them at all sorts of odd hours; and they always bring the hungriest ones there are too. I fall at once into a chronic state of washing up things, and don't recover until court is over." [Illustration: "I FALL AT ONCE INTO A CHRONIC STATE UP WASHING UP THINGS."] "But really, cousin--pardon me if I am inquisitive, for I am greatly interested in this life here in Virginia, it is so new to me--how is it that _you_ must wash up things at all?" "Why, I carry the keys, you know. I'm housekeeper." "Well, but you have servants enough, certainly, and to spare." "O yes! but every lady washes up the things at least once a day. It would never do to trust it altogether to the servants, you know." "None of them are sufficiently careful and trustworthy, do you mean?" "Well, not exactly that; but it's our way here, and if a lady were to neglect it people would think her a poor housekeeper." "Are there any other duties devolving upon Virginian housekeepers besides 'washing up things?' You see I am trying to learn all I can of a life which is as charmingly strange to me as that of Turkey or China would be if I were to go to either country." "Any other duties? Indeed there are, and you shall learn what they are, if you won't find it stupid to go my rounds with me. I'm going now." "I should find dullness itself interesting with you as my fellow observer of it." "Right gallantly said, kind sir," said Miss Sudie, with an exaggerated curtsy. "But if you're going to make pretty speeches I'll get impudent directly. I'm dreadfully given to it anyhow, and I've a notion to say one impudent thing right now." "Pray do. I pardon you in advance." "Well, then, what makes you say 'Virginian housekeepers?'" "What else should I say?" "Why, Virginia housekeepers, of course, like anybody else." "But 'Virginia' is not an adjective, cousin. You would not say 'England housekeepers' or 'France housekeepers,' would you?" asked Robert.