"I am not going to take down the parlor curtains this spring," I said to Adelina, when we went over house-cleaning plans, "another tubbing will probably finish them, and if we leave them till fall, they will put us through one more season at least."
Adelina cast a meditative eye over the windows. There were four of them, large, old-fashioned windows more or less subdued by the voluminous folds of eight long lace curtains. She said nothing. A more suspicious mind might have gathered uneasiness from this fact, but I didn't. It never occurred to me but that Adelina would rejoice to be spared the toil and anxiety, incident upon the process of "doing up" four pair of extensive curtains advanced on the road to oblivion. But I had not yet exhausted the resources of Adelina's character.
When I descended to breakfast one fine morning a week or so later what were my feelings to behold the parlor windows denuded of their hangings, staring at me in that bald, harsh way windows have when their draperies are gone! After the first shock, I decided to wait before speaking with the vigor circumstances certainly invited, and during the prog-
