“Mrs. Merit told me you were settled and ready to see your neighbors, so I would not delay coming over. I have not the same good excuse as she has for so early a visit, for, beyond good feeling, I cannot be of any use to any one, my hands are so completely tied with my family; but you are Mrs. Winfield’s friend, and you seem no stranger to me.” “But no excuse is needed,” said Molly. “I think it exceedingly kind.” Mrs. Lennox was a very nervous-looking woman, who had once been very pretty, and was still young enough to be so. When they had talked a little while, it proved that one of Molly’s dear friends had been a school-fellow of Mrs. Lennox. This made them quite intimate in a few minutes, and Molly found herself talking freely of her hopes and plans. “Oh! but how could you have the courage to keep house, when you had no family to make boarding impossible?” “But it needed more courage to go on boarding, I think,” laughed Molly. “Oh! wait a bit, till your servant goes off at a moment’s notice, just as you have company to dinner; or till your husband begins to criticise the food, or—if you are too newly married for that—till you see him look at the table in despair, and sit down and eat as if it were all chaff,—those are the things that will make you long to give it all up.” “But,” said Molly gravely, for that bitter phrase, “if you are too newly married for that,” shocked her, “I don’t think, if girls served me so half a dozen times a year, it would be more than a temporary annoyance, while to board is a daily and hourly discomfort; as for my husband, I shall try at least to give him as good food as we had while boarding.” “Yes, as good food, but it is the variety; on small means it is impossible to have it. You smile! it is all smooth sailing for you yet, but I assure you the first time you find yourself without a girl you’ll realize what I mean; but it is beautiful to see your enthusiasm, and recalls my own early married life.” She sighed; Molly pretended not to hear her, although she was full of sympathy for her weary looks; she laughed lightly and said, “Well, I don’t believe I should be in despair to find myself without a maid! It would worry Mr. Bishop for my sake, but not me.” “That’s all very well in theory, but when it comes to having the breakfast to get, the fires to light, and you find the bread won’t rise, and nothing goes as it ought to go, you’ll be inclined to sit down and cry.” “But I think things would go better than that. I am so fond of cooking that I shall practice a good deal, so that, if I find myself deserted, we shall not feel the loss beyond less leisure for me.”