A WAY TO BE HAPPY. 185

 

any easier—she could not retire from busi-
ness. In fact, the new order of things
made her a great deal more trouble. One-
half of her time, as she alleged, Mr. Parker
was under her feet and making her just
double work. He had grown vastly parti-
cular, too, about his clothes, and very often
grumbled about the way his food come on
the table, what she had never before known
him to do. The hatter’s good lady was not
very choice of her words, and, when she
chose to speak out, generally did so with re-
markable plainness of speech. The scheme
of retiring from business in the very prime
of life she never approved, but as her good
man had set his heart on it for years, she
did not say much in opposition. Her re-
mark to a neighbour showed her passive
state of mind: ‘‘He has earned his money
honestly, and if he thinks he can enjoy it
better in ‘this way, I suppose it is nobody’s
business.”

This was just the ground she stood upon.
It was a kind of neutral ground, but she

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