hickories; and one moment we were in laughter and the next in
tears--as is the strange life we live. This is a gay household now,
and Dilsy cannot face me without a fleshly earthquake of laughter
that I have become such a high-tempered tiger about punctual meals.

In particular, my two nearest neighbors were much at odds as to
which had better claim to nurse me; so that one day Mrs. Walters,
able to endure it no longer, thrust Mrs. Cobb out of the house by
the shoulder-blades, locked the door on her, and them opened the
shutters and scolded her out of the window.

One thing I miss. My servants have never called the name of
Georgiana. The omission is unnatural, and must be intentional.
Of course I have not asked whether she showed any care; but that
little spot of silence affects me as the sight of a tree remaining
leafless in the woods where everything else is turning green.



XI


To-day I was standing at a window, looking out at the aged row of
cedars, now laden with snow, and thinking of Horace and Soracte.
Suddenly, beneath a jutting pinnacle of white boughs which left
under themselves one little spot of green, I saw a cardinal hop
out and sit full-breasted towards me. The idea flashed through
my mind that this might be that shyest, most beautiful fellow whom
I had found in September, and whom I tried to make out as the son
of my last winter's pensioner. At least he has never lived in my