event depends largely upon the kitchen divinity that we can lure to
this remote and desolate region. 'Faix,' remarked that potentate,
sniffing around disdainfully the day we arrived, 'does yez expects
the loikes o' me to stop in this lonesomeness? We're jist at the
ind of the wourld.' Mamma increased her wages, which were already
double what she earns, and she still condescends to provide our
daily food, giving me a forenoon which closes at her convenience.
During this indefinite period I look after my flowers and birds,
sing and play a little, read a little, entertain a little, and thus
reveal to you a general littleness. In the afternoon I take a nap,
so that I may be wide awake enough to talk to a bright man like
you in case he should appear. Now, are you not shocked and pained
at my frivolous life?"

"You have come to the country for rest and recuperation, Miss
Marian?"

"Oh, what a word,--'recuperation!' It never entered my head that
I had come into the country for that. Do I suggest a crying need
for recuperation?"

"I wouldn't dare tell you all that you suggest to me, and I read
more than you say between your lines. When I approached the house
you were chatting and laughing genially with your mother."

"Oh, yes, mamma and I have as jolly times together as two girls."

"That was evident, and it made a very pleasant impression on me.
One thing is not so evident, and it indicates a rather one-sided
condition of affairs. I could not prevent my thoughts from visiting