“It would be as cheap, and your health would be better. You may not be lucky enough to meet with a good girl at first; but we all run that risk, and I am sure of one thing: if you should give double the wages you would be equally exposed to it, and I am in favor of taking girls who have nothing to unlearn. I went on that plan with my Marta; and, although she is not all I could wish, I don’t think I should have done better by taking one who professed to know.” “I don’t think you could; but she seems to me an exceptional girl.” “Fortunately for me, she has a fondness for cooking, and seems thoroughly respectable; but, if I had more work in my house, I should not be able to keep her; so I am hoping you may be able to find one equally good and a little quicker, if you resolve to make the trial.” “I would like, but I am afraid. I have always heard that a servant increases the expenses out of all proportion to what she eats.” “Of course, if servants are left to themselves in their inexperience, they waste far more than they consume; but you will oversee everything.” “And then I shall get the reputation of being dreadfully stingy.” “What matter? You might be wasteful, and still be called so by those who wish to do it; but economy is not stint. I am sure you will never look more keenly after odds and ends than I do.” Mrs. Lennox looked incredulous. “It is true. If there is _one_ potato left I have it put away; _one_ spoonful of rice, a fag end of beefsteak. Although I am new to keeping house in this country, I am an old housekeeper; for my mother left everything to me, and, our means being small, and she fastidious (by which I mean only that she could do without anything, better than have it second rate), I had to set my wits to work; and I’ve too often known the time when _one_ potato was just the thing to finish, or make her a little dish, to despise it.” “But how?”