2i8 THE GARDEN OF A 



We had a very good dinner, that is always a 

 safe thing; but if the Board meetings are to be 

 like the conversation, I'm afraid they won't do, for 

 there will be no food as a bond of sympathy. 



The S. P. bubbled over with good fellowship of 

 the " dear sister in the faith " order, only he took 

 it that everybody else was of his opinion, and 

 didn't wait to see. He is a peculiar man and 

 religiously inconsistent, constantly doomed to de- 

 plore his own actions. He has, like John Rogers, 

 nine children, which he uses alternately as flags of 

 triumph and alms basins. As it is spring, he waved 

 them vigorously at the R. C. : autumn, the time of new 

 shoes and flannels, is the alms-basin season. The 

 R. C. ate in comparative silence, watched, fed the 

 dogs quietly, and smiled. The A. C., really a 

 charming and cultivated man, felt himself between 

 two fires, and was so aggressively uncomfortable 

 that I did not know him. 



One thing I feel, that if the R. C. goes on the 

 hospital board with that smile and his power of 

 holding his tongue well, it's not my affair, but I 

 shall advise father not to ask him. 



The reason that Evan is over there playing 

 whist is because the S. P. doesn't believe in 

 cards, or at least says politely that he "can't 



