Gathered In by Catherine Helen Spence — Read

"You've been much longer with Mr. Oswald than there was the least occasion for," said the mistress of the house. "Nobody manages him so well as Mick, and the less he's interfered with the better. I never look near him myself. I suppose the smoking-room is in a horrid mess. All the rest of the house has got a thorough turn up, and been cleaned from top to bottom. With both Mr. Oswald and Jim out of the way, it is a good opportunity to get the girls set to work, instead of their idling their time and carrying on and flirting with the men about; and I think you will find it hard to see a speck of dust out of Mr. Oswald's den. All gentlemen hate to see cleaning, but they growl if it ain't done. I hope you are fond of bezique, for it is the only amusement I can offer you."

This was one thing Mrs. Oswald could do, and was fond of; not that she was by any means a good player, but she liked to take a hand, and was less languid over it than anything else. The magazines she spoke of as her only reading were simply fashion journals, where she studied the costumes and the fancywork, and ordered imitations from Melbourne, but she did not read even the serial tales or short stories which were continued with those interesting matters. She did not sew, she did not knit. She had servants enough to do all the household work, and she liked to come out upon them to see that things were not slighted, and that they gave her all their time. She occasionally went into the kitchen to cook special dishes, when she required a great deal of waiting on, and called attention to their excellence when they came to table. And she thoroughly enjoyed her meals, of which she had five every day, unmoved by the increasing stoutness which made her more trying to fit, and was a great grievance to her dressmaker. When the substantial tea was followed by an equally substantial supper only with wine and beer substituted for the milder beverage, she did as great justice to it, and after expressing surprise that Kenneth could not follow her example, she had another game at bezique, took her candle, said good--night, and went to bed for her customary sleep of ten hours.