"You know, Mr. Martin," she replied, in a voice that slightly trembled, "that I have duties to perform beyond myself. However much my feelings may be interested, these cannot be set aside. Under present circumstances, my hand is not my own to give." "But, your duties will become mine, Mary; and most gladly will I assume them. Only give me your hand, and in return I will give you a home for all you love, and you can do for them just as your heart desires. Will you now be mine?" "If my mother object not," she said, bursting into tears. Of course, the mother had no objection to urge, and in a few weeks they were married. It was, perhaps, three months after this event, that the now happy family were seated in a beautifully furnished parlor, large enough to suit even Mrs. Turner's ideas. Something had turned their thoughts on the past, and Mary alluded to their sad experience in keeping boarders. "You did not lose much, did you?" asked her husband. "We sunk over two thousand dollars," Mary replied. "Is it possible! You paid rather dear, then, for your experience in keeping a boarding house." "So I then thought," Mary answered, looking into his face with a smile, "But I believe it was money well laid out. What you call a good investment." "How so?" Mary stooped down to the ear of her husband, who sat a little behind her mother, and whispered, "You are dull, dear--I got you by it, didn't I?" His young wife's cheek was very convenient, and his lips touched it almost involuntarily. "What is that, Mary?" asked her mother, turning towards them, for she had heard her remark, and was waiting for the explanation. "Oh, nothing, mother, it was only some of my fun." "You seem quite full of fun, lately," said Mrs. Turner, with a quiet smile of satisfaction, and again bent her eyes upon the book she was reading. CHAPTER XXX. TWO WAYS WITH DOMESTICS. "AH, good morning, dear! I'm really glad to see you," said Helen Armitage to her young friend Fanny Milnor, as the latter came in to sit an hour with her. "I just wanted a little sunshine." "There ought to be plenty of sunshine here," returned Fanny smiling. "You always seem happy, and so does your mother and sister Mary, whenever I meet you abroad." "Abroad, or at home, makes quite a difference, Fanny. Precious little sunshine have we here. Not a day passes over our heads, that we are not thrown into hot water about something or other, with our abominable servants. I declare! I never saw the like, and it grows worse and worse every day." "Indeed! That is bad, sure enough. But can't you remedy this defect in some way?" "We try hard enough, dear knows! I believe we have had no less than, six cooks, and as many chambermaids in the last three months. But change only makes the matter worse. Sometimes they are so idle and dirty that we cannot tolerate them for a week. And then again they are so ill-natured, and downright saucy, that no one can venture to speak to them."