The condition of the kitchen and the vast improvement brought about by the repairs there furnished Mrs. Harrison with further incentive to put the entire mansion through an overhauling. With her daughter and daughter-in-law to aid her, this trio of accomplished housekeepers proceeded to supervise the renovation and refurnishing from the attic to the cellar, and as this work progressed, Mrs. Harrison began to have visions of what the President’s house should be and how it might be vastly improved by remodelling. The more she studied the possibilities of rearrangement of the offices, the more convinced she became that a practical solution was feasible. To enlarge the living quarters, to give the family more privacy and the Executive more space for the daily work of his staff was her dream. The repairs she had made had cost $50,000 and there was no possibility of extensive remodelling, much as she would have liked it done. But she consulted the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds, various architects, discussed the advantages of her proposed changes with many of the members of Congress, and planted the seeds of her very fine and thoroughly practical plan, which was carried out later but not until ten years after her death. Soon after Mrs. Harrison’s arrival she engaged for the culinary department of the White House at a wage of fifty dollars per month a Frenchwoman formerly in the service of Lord Sackville West of the British Embassy. This plan was for the summer months. The climate of the Capital City or the atmosphere of the then draughty mansion failed to agree with the Harrison grandchildren, as they all became ill, to the great distress of the President and his wife. Early in the summer, the physician ordered them to be taken to the seashore. Owing to this sudden change in the family living arrangements, Mrs. Harrison, to economize, thought she would dispense with her French cook of vast experience and high wage, and, during the absence of the bulk of the family, avail herself of the service of a coloured woman at fifteen dollars monthly. She forthwith discharged her cook, only to discover that, although First Lady of the Land, mistress of the White House, and leader of millions of women, there were limitations to her authority when she tried to dismiss her cook. The cook refused to be discharged, preferring to remain the genius of the White House kitchen; she most emphatically refused to leave unless paid for the entire season. She considered her dismissal cause for a suit for damages, and before the matter was adjusted satisfactorily to both sides, a lawyer had been engaged, the matter put before Marquis de Chambrun, law representative of the French Government in the city, and the usual attorney’s letter for settlement sent to the President.