"Which I should never allow,"--Letitia's tone was wonderfully firm--"I can't imagine how self-respecting people permit such a thing. They always do it in plays. I shan't countenance it. If Anna persists in staying with us, when she is too old to work, then she shall have exactly the same wages. Am I not right, Archie?" "Always," I cried admiringly; "always, my dear girl." "I think," said Letitia musingly, "I think a colored maid always looks so neat and attractive in a plain black dress, buttoned down the front, and a white cap--something fluffy and lacey--a wide, stiff, white collar and pretty cuffs. I shall dress Anna Carter like that. I have quite made up my mind to it. Oh, Archie," she went on rapturously, "don't you think that the _bonnes_ in Paris--you see them in the Champs Elysées, and everywhere--look perfectly lovely in the caps with the long satin ribbons trailing to the ground?" "But they are nurses, dear," I suggested, just for the sake of arguing with my little wife. "That doesn't matter at all," she cried triumphantly. "There's no law to prevent our dressing Anna in just that style, if we like, is there, Archie? You must admit that there isn't. I shall get her a pretty cap, with yards of olive-green ribbon, to match the burlap on the dining-room wall. Isn't it a charming idea? And colored people love a bit of finery--a ribbon or so. I can imagine her delight. I hope she isn't fearfully colored--an unbecoming shade--as green would be such a bad match. We should be obliged to have red, and that would be so glaring with the green walls. I can't help feeling a bit sorry--since we have heard from Aunt Julia--that we didn't have red burlap in the dining-room. But one can't think of everything, can one, Archie?" "No, dear," I said soothingly. "You are a wonderful little woman to have thought of all this." "And I do hope," she went on, "that Anna has a black dress, buttoning down the front. I have set my heart on it, Archie. It may be a trifle, but somehow or other, those old-fashioned buttoned bodices look so comfortable and homelike."