COMMUTER'S WIFE 87 



business address on a rustic sign just below ? It can 

 be seen a mile off from the cars. 



" Garden wouldn't match the house ? Neither did 

 ours, but we put on a whole new outside all stucco, 

 you know, and the Prince who visited us last summer 

 said he only had to close his eyes to think himself in 

 Italy." 



Verily, of such trials as these are calls composed ; 

 and I have to keep my temper and not say a 

 word of what rises to my lips, but she would not 

 have understood if I had, poor soul, and so I let 

 her clatter on. 



" Not but all those old flowers that you've had 

 growing for ages down yonder have come in fash- 

 ion again. Yes, isn't it strange they're quite in the 

 swing, and those hollyhock roots that are scat- 

 tered everywhere would cost a lot if you tried to 

 replace them. 



"Why, child, nature and all that stuff that you 

 and the doctor always thought so much about and 

 spent so much time over has come right in since 

 you've been away. There is a princess or a duchess 

 or somebody (anyway her name's in an almanac 

 a patent medicine, I suppose, but I don't remember 

 what she took it for), and she lives in Germany and 

 is named Elizabeth, and she's written a book about 



