I think bills are perfectly horrid! And here's my dressmaker's bill.

Gracious, how Madame LaFayette has gone up in her prices! I believe I'll make my own clothes after this; but the market bills are the worst I don't see how we _could_ have eaten all these things.

Mancy must be a dreadful waster, but it isn't fair to blame her; if that's where the trouble is, I ought to have looked after it myself.

Hello, Marian, is that you?
I didn't hear you come in.

Do come here, I'm in the depths of despair!" "What's the matter, Patsie?
and what a furious lot of bills! You look like a clearinghouse." "Oh, Marian, it's perfectly fearful! Every bill is two or three times as much as I thought it would be, and I'm so sorry, for I meant to be such a thrifty housekeeper." "Jiminetty Christmas!" exclaimed Marian, looking at some of the papers, "I should think these bills _were_ big! Why, that's more than we pay a month for groceries, and look at the size of our family." "I know it," said Patty hopelessly.