The Front Yard

nctuous table d'h?te had been unusually brilliant during this month of March; upon several occasions there had been no less than

r place, she ate sparingly, looking neither to the right nor the left, holding her knife and fork with care, and laying them down cautiously, as though she were trying not to waken some one who was asleep. But the table d'h?te of the

he top of her smooth gray hair, addressed the silent stranger at her left hand.

N

tly we came, yesterday morning, we

w as I care

see the

re were temples," mur

ice resumed, doing a little missionary work (which can never c

here were a good many; my son took me," the tall woman answe

down to P?stum," the fresh-faced Englishwoman continued, addressing her husband, who sat next to her on the right, for the mome

husband, a portly Warwickshire vicar. He bent forward a little to glance past his wife at this

e was entering the inn by the back door, when she espied her neighbor of the dinner-table sitting near by on a bench. There was nothing to see but a paling f

rden in front?" the English w

I thin

ecause there we have the sea, yo

about the sea; it's all

ll. We had a very nasty day wh

ter see the things grow," hazarded the American, timid

thi

s peas, and asparagus, and beans, and some sorts I don't kn

shwoman answered, a little bewildered, look

no maid, yet she wears those very good diamonds; and she always appears in that Paris gown of rich black silk-the very richest quality, I assure you, Augustas: she wears i

ore herself to extinction,"

I don't think she ever reads. And when I told her that I should be very pleased to show her some o

ong people who believe that the "men-folks" of a family have an existence apart from that of mothers and sisters, and that it is right that they should have it. Her son, who never went h

ound it less difficult to eat her dinner when the attention of the waiter was distracted by the necessity of a

he was present she controlled them; when he was present, also, in a great measure, they disappeared. He knew that she would not have had one moment's content had he left her behind him, even if he had left her in the finest

enjoy it. But Mrs. Ash had enjoyed nothing-save the going about on her son's arm. If he left her alone amid the most exquisite scenery in the world, she did not even see the scenery; s

enjoyed her two years abroad. The reason was found in the fact that she could say

-the days and the nights whe

ed into thinking a little of the future-of the farm she should like to have some day, with fruit and cream and vegetables-yes, especially vegetables; and she dreamed of an old pleasure of her youth, that of hunting for little round artich

s, restless life again. Her awkward crochet-needle had stopped of itself; she went no more to her bench beside the asparagus. Instead, she remained in her room-her four rooms-every now and then peeping anxiously through the blinds. Nothing happened-s

ook no dinner at all. When he came in she was always there, always carefully dressed in the black silk whose rich texture the vicar's wife had notic

her face, and arranged with a high comb after a fashion of her youth. Her eyes, large, dark, and appealing, were sunken; they were beautiful eyes, if one could have removed from them their expression of apprehension, but that seemed now to have grown a part of them, to have become fixed b

venth day. "Perhaps you had better go with me." He had come in and

nswered Mrs. Ash. Then, after a moment, "She said there were temple

crombies, little Miss Holland, Mrs. Graham, and all. Those b

BAH

if you are going. Would you like ter

in Salerno, marmer," he said, coming across to kiss her; "old lady Preston will have to put u

loving little boy. But she did not let the tears drop: she never made scenes of any kind before John. "Well, you've been riding horseback every day now fo

on't be afraid of anything or anybody to-morrow, marmer, I beg. You're the

r my India s

ere a hundred times bester. You are

his mother, blushing. She put her hand up for a moment,

e got into a way of not thinking so. But I think so, and others

well over there to-day?" she asked, hesitatingly. "Over there" was her name for the hou

without seeing her. "One of them is a little too well," he said, menacingly; "let him look to himself-that's all." And then into his face, his mother, watching him, saw coming slowly something she knew. The e

r bonnet and shawl. Coming back, still slowly, she paused, and for five minutes stood there motionless. Then her hands dropped desparingly by her sides, and her worn face quivered. "O God, O ou

of that, she went back to th