THE MAYFLIES 111 



mother's bedroom behind the door. 

 Indeed, the whole house tickles your 

 fancy and conceit. AVhat a place it 

 might become were you the owner ! 

 True, Suzanne's mother has prerogative ; 

 and yet, did not that Spaniard come by a 

 violent death and nobody the wiser ? 



What a place it might be made when, 

 all that paint and paper scraped away, 

 those massive stones about each open 

 hearth disclosed, you placed your cherished 

 goods and chattels (now warehoused in 

 remote Kensington) just how they should 

 be set in each right nook and corner. 



But the top story is the best of all — 

 one vast wood-panelled chamber — used 

 now as lumber - room. Here in the 

 autumn are the apples and green walnuts 

 stored. Their pungent scent still lingers, 

 blended with odour of leather, wood and 

 herbs ; for there is a motley array of 

 old stamped leather boxes, with endless 

 pots and pans in brass Mid faience, mostly 

 broken, a rosewood spinet in like condition 

 and also out of tune, a lidless cedar box 

 filled now with small wooden pins, some 

 carved, some inlaid with ivory, and some 



