“But then, of course, there is no comparison between me and such a woman as that. How she gets along with the Germans, and French, and others who live in her place, I can’t see. “They are always having rows there, but no one can even whisper, and say that anything of the kind ever happened to my house, except once, when two of the lodgers, young city clerks, fell out about a servant girl, who was rather good-looking, and knocked each other down stairs. “You have no notion, my dear, of my troubles. “If I have mutton as the principal dish some one grumbles, if I have beef another sniffs and says he’s dined already. “Then Mistress this is too lazy to come down to breakfast, and almost pulls the bell down for Sarah to take it up to her. “Then Miss the other, her daughter, don’t like tea nor coffee and must have chocolate and toast; while two or three others eat hot cakes faster than we can make ’em; and then there’s more grumbling and threatening to leave, until it worries my very life out almost. “I don’t care much about how the _men_ talk, you know, because I can manage _them_. “If their boots and hot water aren’t ready I can plead an excuse of some kind, and even if they _do_ ‘burst out’ like, and tell you what they think, and threaten to go, I don’t dislike ’em, because, as my poor husband used to say, ‘after the storm there’s always a calm,’ and then _my_ turn comes. “If they owe anything I talks like a sensible woman to ’em, and ‘rides a high horse,’ but if they don’t I only smiles, and takes no notice. “Oh, I can get along with the men, my dear, I always could. I would rather have to do with _ten_ men than _one_ woman; and wouldn’t have one in the house at all if I could help it. “But, then, you see, my dear, men _will_ have women in the house; I don’t blame ’em a bit, it looks natural like. “A house don’t look right without a woman or two but; heaven keep me from having a houseful of young women and young men! “I tried it once, but it wouldn’t answer, my dear. “Oh, the sorrow and vexation I had with ’em. I had my hands full, and soon gave it up. “Young widows in the house are just as bad. “I abominate widows in the house from my heart, particularly when young and handsome, although I am a widow myself. “There’s always trouble about ’em, and they are always flirting with some one, and getting the men into fusses. “But what can you do, my dear? You must have _some_ one that’s attractive to keep the men together, otherwise the place would be as cold and cheerless to ’em as an ice-house. “But, then, my dear, they talk so much, there’s no end to their chatter. “You can’t keep ’em from it, and the older they get the more they have to say about their neighbours. “Not that _I_ care, you know, my dear; they can talk as much as they like for all _me_, so they pays their bills, and don’t actually insult me to my face.