MRS. CRISTIE CONSIDERS.
"I cannot see," said he, speaking to the company in general, "why babies are not brought to the table. I think they ought to be taught from the very beginning how to behave themselves at meals."
Mr. Petter fixed his eyes upon him, and, speaking through the young man, also addressed the company.
"I'm not altogether in favor of having small children at the table," said he. "Their food is different from ours, and their ways are often unpleasant; but I do think—"
"No, you don't," interrupted Mrs. Petter from the other end of the table—"you don't think anything of the kind. That has all been fixed and settled, and there's no use in bringing it up again."
Mr. Petter looked at his wife with a little flash in his eye, but he spoke quietly.
"There are some things," he said, "that can be unfixed and unsettled."
Mrs. Cristie hastened to stop this discussion.
"As I own the only baby in the house," she said, with a smile, "I may as well say that it is not coming to the table either by itself or in any other way."