While most household activities will produce filth which can be washed away with determination, there are some stains which shall remain nameless for which there is no remedy to be found no matter how hard you scrub, because they linger on the fabric of your soul for eternity, even (and especially) if they land upon a little black dress which has to be sent to the dry cleaners and is returned spotless — it will NOT be spotless for the memory retains the stain which once marred it.
Let that be a lesson to you.
Marion Harland’s Complete Cook Book, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1906
Also by Marion Harland: Roast Bambi, The Alternate Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Wet Blanket of Discouragement
