Her resentment was falling away; she felt the influence of this imperturbable geniality.
'Shall I tell you my theory ?' He talked with less reserve than on the last occasion when they had sat together.

The mellow sunlight, the garden odours, the warm, still air, favoured a growth of intimacy.
'By all means,' was Nancy's reply.
'We must begin by admitting that the ordinary woman hates nothing so much as to have another woman set in authority over her.' He paused, and laughed lazily.

'Now, before the triumph of glorious Democracy, only those women kept servants who were capable of rule,--who had by birth the instinct of authority.

They knew themselves the natural superiors of their domestics, and went through an education fitting them to rule.
Things worked very well; no servant-difficulty existed.

Now-a-days, every woman who can afford it must have another woman to wait upon her, no matter how silly, or vulgar, or depraved she may be; the result, of course, is a spirit of rebellion in the kitchen.