Is life worth having, Horace, on less than five thousand a year ?" The servant returned with a strip of embroidery.

She took it with an insolent grace, and told him to bring her a footstool.

The man obeyed.
She tossed the embroidery away from her on the sofa.

"On second thoughts, I don't care about my work," she said.

"Take it upstairs again." The perfectly trained servant, marveling privately, obeyed once more.