"Fetch them!"
The cook who was waiting behind the butler ran off to the kitchen and returned with four limp dry roots which he exhibited with many misgivings.
"Six-day-old carrots," commented Mrs. Hulver, with fine scorn. "They were entered in the account last Friday. Cross off 'carrots, two annas,' please, miss."
The butler accepted the correction without another word, and proceeded to the end of his list. Eola would willingly have dispensed with some of the details, but Mrs. Hulver was inexorable.
"It must be done, miss," she had said in reply. "As long as you can hold a pen you must take down the daily account. If by any chance you were ill then I should be obliged to do it; but Ramachetty and I shall remain better friends if I have nothing to do with the bookkeeping."
"You have something to do with it, Mrs. Hulver. You check his attempts at cheating."
"I keep them down to reasonable proportions. As William—that was my second (he was a very straight-minded man)—used to say: 'Keep others honest and they'll keep you up to the mark.'"
When the accounts were finished and the butler and cook dismissed, Eola turned to her housekeeper.
"Mrs. Hulver!" she said.
"Yes, miss."