_Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "I think it will rain to-day, but there is no need to worry about that. Robert has his umbrella and his mackintosh, and I don't think he is idiotic enough to lend both of them. If he does, he'll get wet, that's all." Mrs. Edwards is speaking to herself in the sewing-room of the apartment occupied by herself and her husband in the Hotel Hammingbell at Boston. It is not a large room, but cosey. A frieze one foot deep runs about the ceiling, and there is a carpet on the floor. Three pins are seen scattered about the room, in one corner of which is a cane-bottomed chair holding across its back two black vests and a cutaway coat. Mrs. Edwards sits before a Wilcox & Wilson sewing-machine sewing a button on a light spring overcoat. The overcoat has one outside and three inside pockets, and is single-breasted. "It is curious," Mrs. Edwards continues, "what men will do with umbrellas and mackintoshes on a rainy day. They lend them here and there, and the worst part of it is they never remember where." A knock is heard at the door. "Who's there?" _Voice_ (_without_). "Me." [Illustration: "'COME IN'"] _Mrs. Robert Edwards_ (_with a nervous shudder_). "Come in." Enter Mary the house-maid. She is becomingly attired in blue alpaca, with green ribbons and puffed sleeves. She holds a feather duster in her right hand, and in her left is a jar of Royal Worcester. "Mary," Mrs. Edwards says, severely, "where are we at?" _Mary_ (_meekly_). "Boston, ma'am." _Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "South Boston or Boston proper?" _Mary._ "Boston proper, ma'am." _Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "Then when I say 'Who's there?' don't say 'Me.' That manner of speaking may do at New York, Brooklyn, South Boston, or Congress, but at Boston proper it is extremely gauche. 'I' is the word." _Mary._ "Yes, ma'am; but you know, ma'am, I don't pretend to be literary, ma'am, and so these little points baffles I very often." Mrs. Edwards sighs, and, walking over to the window, looks out upon the trolley-cars for ten minutes; then, picking up one of the pins from the floor and putting it in a pink silk pin-cushion which stands next to an alarm-clock on the mantel-piece, a marble affair with plain caryatids and a brass fender around the hearth, she resumes her seat before the sewing-machine, and threads a needle. Then-- _Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "Well, Mary, what do you want?" _Mary._ "Please, Mrs. Edwards, the butcher is came, and he says they have some very fine perairie-chickens to-day." _Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "We don't want any prairie-chickens. The prairies are so very vulgar. Tell him never to suggest such a thing again. Have we any potatoes in the house?" _Mary._ "There's three left, ma'am, and two slices of cold roast beef." _Mrs. Robert Edwards._ "Then tell him to bring five more potatoes, a steak, and--Was all the pickled salmon eaten?" _Mary._ "All but the can, ma'am."