(Confidential - with John.)

I do not like that word uallowance." It savors too much of a stipend granted by a lordling to a serf; a government pension to a beneficiary; the dole of the rich to the poor. But since it has crept into general use as descriptive of that portion of the wife's earnings which she is permitted to disburse more or less at her discretion, we must take it as we find it.

Marriage is to a woman one of two things - licensed, and therefore honorable beggary, or, a copartnership with her husband upon fair and distinctly specified terms. When I spoke of the wife's earnings just now, it was not with reference to moneys accumulated by work or investments outside of the home which she occupies with you and your children. We will set aside, if you please, the legal and religious fiction that you have endowed her with all - or half your worldly goods, and put still further from our consideration the sounding oaths with which you protested in the days of your wooing, that you cared nothing for pelf and lucre - Cupid's terms for stocks, bonds and mortgages, houses and lands - except that you might cast them at her feet. If you recollect such figures of speech at all, it is with a laugh, good-humored, or shame-faced, and the plea that everybody talks in the same way in like circumstances; that pledges thus given are in no wise to be regarded as promissory notes. Hymen's is a general court of bankruptcy so far as such obligations go. Your wife is a sensible woman, and never expected to take you at your word - at least, such hot and hasty words as those, in which you declared yourself to be the most abject of her slaves, and herself the empress of your universe, including the aforementioned stocks, mortgages, houses and lands, real and personal estate - all assets in esse and in posse.

Having cleared away, by a stroke of common sense, this gossamer, that like other cobwebs, is pretty while the dew of early morning impearls it, and only an annoyance afterward; particularly odious when it entangles itself about the lips and eyes of him who lately admired it - we will look at the question of the wife's work and wages from a business point of view - pencil and paper in hand.

First, we will determine what should be the salary of a competent housekeeper; one who makes her employer's interests her own; who rises up early and lies down late, and eats the bread of carefulness; who is not to be coaxed away by higher wages, and is never in danger of giving warning if her "feelings are hurt;" if the servants are insubordinate, or the master is given to fault-finding, and not always respectful to herself. It would be to your interest, were you a widower, you confess, to give this treasure two dollars a day - as women's wages go. "And," you add in a burst of manly confidence, "she would be cheap at that." But we will put down her salary in round numbers, at $700 per annum.

Now comes the seamstress' pay. Again, a "compe tent person," one who is ever in her place; whose work-hours number fourteen out of the twenty-four, if her services are required by you or the children; whose needle is always threaded, her eye ever vigilant; with whom slighting and botching are things unknown by practice; who takes pride in seeing each of the household trig and tidy; who "seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands; "who is an adept in fine needlework as in plain sewing, and not a novice in dress-making; who, perchance, can "manage" boys' clothes as well as girls - who will do it, of a certainty, if you explain that you cannot afford tailors' bills for urchins under ten years of age; finally, who possesses that most valuable of arts for a poor man's wife, " To gar auld claes look a'maist as weel as new."

Shall we allow to this nonpareil the wages of an ordinary seamstress who "cannot undertake cutting and fitting," - one dollar a day? Or, is she entitled to the pay of a dressmaker's assistant - half a dollar more? I do not want to be hard with you. We will set her down for $450 a year. And, again, we conclude that you have made a good bargain.

Next, the nursery-governess, and perhaps the most important functionary in the household. She must, you stipulate, have charge of the children, by day and night; guard morals, health and manners, besides teaching the youngerlings the rudiments of reading and writing; must superintend the preparation of the elder ones' lessons for school-recitations, and look to it that catechism and Bible-lesson are ready for Sabbath-school ; that musical exercises are duly practised; that home is made so attractive to the boys that they shall not be drawn thence by the questionable hilarity of engine-house and oyster-cellar. A lady she must be, else how would your girls be trained to modest and graceful behavior, and your friends be entertained as you deem is due to you and to them, in your house % A responsible, judicious person is indispensable to the comfort and health of you and yours; one who does not regard the care of a young baby as "too confining;" nor sleepless nights on account of it, a valid reason for "bettering herself;" nor a brisk succession of measles, mumps and chicken-pox cogent cause for informing you that she "didn't engage for this sort of work, and would you be suiting yourself with a lady as has a stronger constitution - immediate, for her trunk is packed."

Would a thousand dollars per annum provide you with such a hireling? I knew a wealthy man who offered just that sum for a nursery-governess during the protracted illness of his wife. She must be intelligent and ladylike, he stated, qualified to undertake the education of the three younger children.. There were six in all, but there was a tutor for the boys. The governess' bed-room adjoined that of the little girls, the door of which must stand open all night. The baby's crib was to be by her bed, and a child, three years old, was also to share her chamber. She would be treated respectfully and kindly, and every enjoyment of the luxurious establishment, compatible with the proper discharge of the duties appointed, would be hers.