fore; and the cook knew half as much of cookery,
and had no gratitude. The more you gave these
people, it seemed, the worse they behaved--a con-
dition not to be remedied by simply giving them
less, because you couldn't even get the worst unless
you paid her what she demanded. Nevertheless,
Mrs. Adams remained fitfully an optimist in the
matter. Brought up by her mother to speak of a
female cook as "the girl," she had been instructed
by Alice to drop that definition in favour of one not
'an improvement in accuracy: "the maid." Almost
always, during the first day or so after every cook
came, Mrs. Adams would say, at intervals, with an
air of triumph: "I believe of course it's a little
soon to be sure--but I do really believe this new
maid is the treasure we've been looking for so long!"
Much in the same way that Alice dreamed of a
mysterious perfect mate for whom she "waited," her
mother had a fairy theory that hidden somewhere
in the universe there was the treasure, the perfect
"maid," who would come and cook in the Adamses'
kitchen, not four days or four weeks, but forever.

The present incumbent was not she. Alice,
profoundly interested herself, kept her mother like-
wise so preoccupied with the dress that they were

-59-