"  So,  you  just  see,"  she  continued,  "  what  you  've  got  to
manage.  A  household  without  any  rule  ;  where  servants  have
it  all  their  own  way,  do  what  they  please,  and  have  what  they
please,  except  so  far  as  I,  with  my  feeble  health,  have  kept  up
government.  I  keep  my  cowhide  about,  and  sometimes  I  do
lay  it  on  ;  but  the  exertion  is  always  too  much  for  me.  If  St
Clare  would  only  have  this  thing  done  as  others  do  "  —

«  And  how 's  that  ?  "

"Why,  send  them  to  the  calaboose,  or  some  of  the  othei
places,  to  be  flogged.     That 's  the  only  way.    If  I  was  n't  such


LIFE  AMONG   THE   LOWLY.  196

B  poor,  feeble  piece,  I  believe  I  should  manage  with  twice  the
energy  that  St.  Clare  does."

"  And  how  does  St.  Clare  contrive  to  manage  ?  "  said  Miss
Ophelia.     "  You  say  he  never  strikes  a  blow."

"  Well,  men  have  a  more  commanding  way,  you  know  ;  it  is
easier  for  them ;  besides,  if  you  ever  looked  full  in  his  eye,  it 's
peculiar,  —  that  eye,  —  and  if  he  speaks  decidedly,  there 's  a
kind  of  flash.  I  'm  afraid  of  it,  myself ;  and  the  servants  know
they  must  mind.  I  could  n't  do  as  much  by  a  regular  storm  and
scolding  as  St.  Clare  can  by  one  turn  of  his  eye,  if  once  he  is  in
earnest.  Oh,  there  's  no  trouble  about  St.  Clare ;  that 's  the
reason  he  's  no  more  feeling  for  me.  But  you  'U  find,  when  you
come  to  manage,  that  there  's  no  getting  along  without  severity,
—they  are  so  bad,  so  deceitful,  so  lazy."

"  The  old  tune,"  said  St.  Clare,  sauntering  in.  "  What  an
awful  account  these  wicked  creatures  will  have  to  settle,  at  last,
especially  for  being  lazy !  You  see,  cousin,"  said  he,  as  he
stretched  himself  at  fuH  length  on  a  lounge  opposite  to  Marie,
"  it 's  whoUy  inexcusable  in  them,  in  the  light  of  the  example
that  Marie  and  I  set  them,  —  this  laziness."

"  Come,  now,  St.  Clare,  you  are  too  bad  ! "  said  Marie.
