The Shoulders of Atlas

e leaves. The paper was a nondescript pattern, a large satin scroll on white. The room was wainscoted in white, and the panel-work around the great c

ad her nice furnace, beats me. Seems to me we had better have it taken out, and have a nice board, covered with pape

neaking admiration of which he was ashamed. It had always seemed to him that Sylvia's tas

ike a fire in it somet

en there's

in the fall, before

ad in the other house put up. If we had a fire in

ld look kin

ep it in abeyance; still, there was no doubt that a strange and subtle change had occurred within the woman. Henry was constantly looking at her when she spoke, because he vaguely detected unwonted tones in

that nothing whatever was the matter, continued to regard her with a frown of perplexity, from which she turned with a switch of her skirts and

domain with a pride which had in it something almost repellent. At suppe

ething nice like this, after we had pulled and tugged for nothi

m to him that it could be Sylvia Whitman who was speaking. The thought crossed his mind, as he took his place at the table, that possibl

ably boyish about Horace Allen, although he was long past thirty. "By George, that Chippendale sideboard is

. "Mrs. Jim Jones has got a beautiful one she bought selling Calkin's soap," she said. "She thinks it's prettier th

d at a corner-closet wi

t, too," he said; "and those are

and quaint decorations savoring of mystery and the Far East, but he realized that his view was directly opposed to his wife's. This tim

stuff like that when they can have nice, clear, white ware, with flowers on it that are flowers, like this Calkin's soap set. There ain't a thing on the china in tha

xtended his plate for

quired tast

e Lord gave me," said Sylvia, but she smiled. She was d

r fare after living in a Boston h

ed Horace. "Give me home cooking like yours every time. I hav

ad always distressed Sylvia. She had often told Henry that it seemed to her if he would wear a nice suit of black broadcloth it would be more in keeping with

that every mother in East Westland, with a marriageable daughter, and every daughter, had matrimonial designs upon him; and she considered that none of th

they sat in the large south room, and Horace had admire

good many people in

born and brought up and educated there

know a good man

race; "but none of t

dn't as

y a few, but

to know

lvia," he said, "Mr.

. Mrs. Jim Jones and Mrs. Sam Elliot both came while you were gone, Mr. Allen. They said they thought maybe we wouldn't take a boarder now we have come into property, and maybe you woul

!" said

do. Neither of those women can cook fit for a cat to eat, let alo

ly. "I didn't know that you would ta

hitman and I like to have the company, and you never make a mite

d gone up-stairs for the night and the couple were in

nto Mrs. Jim Jones or Mrs. Sam Elliot. I don't believe he has an idea of getting married to any girl alive. He ain't a mite silly over the girls, if they are

ed Henry. Their room was directly

f a cigar floated in

Smoking is an awful habit," Sy

moked a pipe," said Hen

e," said Sylvia. "It seems to me, with all our means, you might smoke cigars now, Henry. I saw rea

niffed

ut cigars," said Sylvia; "but I can smell, anyhow,

is," asse

pers around them, and I know as well as I want to they're cheap; I know a cen

as some time before both woke suddenly. A sound had wakened Henry, an odor Sylvia. Henry had heard a door open, forcing him into wakefu

awake, smoking, now

othing. He o

u think i

toed out into the sitting-room. He stole across the hall into the best parlor. He raised a window in there noiselessly, looked out, and listened. There was a grove of pines and spruces on that side of the house. There was a bench under a pine. Upon this bench Henry gradually perceived a whiteness more opaque than that of the fog. He heard a voice, then a responsive murmur. Then the fragrant smoke of a cigar came directly in

his wife, but he did not fall asleep. After what seemed to him a long time he heard a stealthy

's smoking again," she murmured,

He breathed evenly, p