I put a few of the cards in my pocket. A few weeks afterwards I was not at all pleased when I found Eliza using some of her cards for winding silk. She said that it did not prevent them from being used again, if they were ever wanted.
“Pardon me,” I said, “but cards we find it necessary to leave with people can hardly be too clean. Please don’t do it again!”
That evening Eliza told me that No. 14 in our road had been let to some prople called Popworth.
“That must be young Popworth, who to be in our office,” I said. “I heard he was going to be married this year. You must certainly call and leave cards.”
“Which sort, and how many?”
“Without looking it up in a book, I am unable to say precisely. These things are very much a matter of taste. Leave enough --- say one of each sort for each person in the house.”
“How am I to know hoe=w many persons there are?”
“See if they get their meat from the same shop as ourselves, and, if so, ask the butcher.”
On the following day said that I thought that Popworth must have come un for some money, to be taking so large a house, and I hoped she had left the cards.
“I asked the butcher, and he said there was Popworth, his wife, two sisters, a German friend, and eleven children. That means sixteen persons, and forty-eight cards altogether. You see, I still remember your rule,”
“My dear Eliza,” I said, “I told you plainly that it was matter of taste. You ought not to have left forty-eight at once.”