“Let us now,” he said to his friend, “go on to what remains for us, to the statistics of the estate.  We shall have a good deal of work to get through at the beginning, and afterward we shall come to the farm estimates, and much else which will naturally arise out of them.  Only we must have one thing distinctly settled and adhered to.  Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life.  Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freer handling.  Business demands the utmost stringency and sequence; in life, inconsecutiveness is frequently necessary, indeed, is charming and graceful.  If you are firm in the first, you can afford yourself more liberty in the second; while if you mix them, you will find the free interfering with and breaking in upon the fixed.”

In these sentiments Edward felt a slight reflection upon himself.  Though not naturally disorderly, he could never bring himself to arrange his papers in their proper places.  What he had to do in connection with others, was not kept separate from what depended only on himself.  Business got mixed up with amusement, and serious work with recreation.  Now, however, it was easy for him, with the help of a friend who would take the trouble upon himself; and a second “I” worked out the separation, to which the single “I” was always unequal.

In the Captain’s wing, they contrived a depository for what concerned the present, and an archive for the past.  Here they brought all the documents, papers, and notes from their various hiding-places, rooms, drawers, and boxes, with the utmost speed.  Harmony and order were introduced into the wilderness, and the different packets were marked and registered in their several pigeon-holes.  They found all they wanted in greater completeness even than they had expected; and here an old clerk was found of no slight service, who for the whole day and part of the night never left his desk, and with whom, till then, Edward had been always dissatisfied.

“I should not know him again,” he said to his friend, “the man is so handy and useful.”

“That,” replied the Captain, “is because we give him nothing fresh to do till he has finished, at his convenience, what he has already; and so, as you perceive, he gets through a great deal.  If you disturb him, he becomes useless at once.”

Spending their days together in this way, in the evenings they never neglected their regular visits to Charlotte.  If there was no party from the neighborhood, as was often the case, they read and talked, principally on subjects connected with the improvement of the condition and comfort of social life.

Charlotte, always accustomed to make the most of opportunities, not only saw her husband pleased, but found personal advantages for herself.  Various domestic arrangements, which she had long wished to make, but which she did not know exactly how to set about, were managed for her through the contrivance of the Captain.  Her domestic medicine-chest, hitherto but poorly furnished, was enlarged and enriched, and Charlotte herself, with the help of good books and personal instruction, was put in the way of being able to exercise her disposition to be of practical assistance more frequently and more efficiently than before.