form a very correct idea of the circumstances that attend the happy
engagements of all young people. I imagine they prevail in all countries,
just as the feeling about 'mother' prevails. Yes, 'Mother' is the right
title for my story, as you shall see. Is it not strange that if you add
'in-law' to the word 'mother,' how immediately the sentiment of the term
is altered?--as strongly indeed as when you prefix the word 'step' to it.
But it is with neither of these composite forms of mother that any story
deals.

"Ethel has always maintained that if I had really understood her, it
never would have happened. She says--"

"Richard, I"--

"My dear, you shall tell your story afterwards, and I promise to listen
without a word until you are finished. Mrs. Field says that if I had
understood her nature as a man ought to understand the girl he has been
thinking about for several years, I should have known she cared nothing
about my income."

"I didn't care! I'd have"--but Mr. Field checked her outburst.

"She was going to say," said Mr. Field, "that had I asked her to marry me
when I became sure that I wished to marry her, she would have been
willing to leave New York and go to the waste land in Michigan that was
her inheritance from a grandfather, and there build a cabin and live in
it with me; and that while I shot prairie chickens for dinner she would
have milked the cow which some member of the family would have been
willing to give us as a wedding present instead of a statue of the Winged
Victory, or silver spoons and forks, had we so desired."