"Oh, but why?" she asked.

"If you force me to discuss it," said Mrs. Salisbury, in sudden
anger, "because you are my maid! My gracious, YOU ARE MY MAID," she
repeated, pent-up irritation finding an outlet at last. "There is
such a relationship as mistress and maid, after all! While you are
in my house you will do as I say. It is the mistress's place to give
orders, not to take them, not to have to argue and defend herself--"

"Certainly, if it is a question about the work the maid is supposed
to do," Justine defended herself, with more spirit than the other
woman had seen her show before. "But what she does with her leisure-
-why it's just the same as what a clerk does with his leisure,
nobody questions it, nobody--"

"I tell you that I will not stand here and argue with you," said
Mrs. Salisbury, with more dignity in her tone than in her words. "I
say that I don't care to have my maid exploited by a lot of
fashionable women at a club, and that ends it! And I must add," she
went on, "that I am extremely surprised that Mrs. Sargent should
approach you in such a matter, without consulting me!"

"The relationship of mistress and maid," Justine said slowly, "is
what has always made the trouble. Men have decided what they want
done in their offices, and never have any trouble in finding boys to
fill the vacancies. But women expect--"

"I really don't care to listen to any further theories from that
extraordinary school," said Mrs. Salisbury decidedly. "I have told