COMMUTER'S WIFE 261 



hearten. I've thought it over, Mrs. Evan, and I don't 

 see the way clear to it, bein' the fault o' mixed races, 

 and not yours, mum. For that matter, Timothy Saun- 

 ders he says there isn't any 'ome-brewed to be got 

 over here, the same bein' thin and watery, and I do 

 claim there's no such thing for making one feel 

 respect for the stomach as 'ome-brewed along with a 

 lean cut o' beef." 



Neither could I see the way, and I could under- 

 stand her craving, though I had not before thought 

 of the omission. Beer dealt out in the kitchen of a 

 New England physician ! and Martha was not one 

 to take it secretly. Irrespective of the Village Liar 

 and the Emporium, such a thing was not to be con- 

 sidered. Poor Martha, as well as the sundial, it 

 seems, is the victim of changed conditions. 



I turned the talk to the roses and gave her a 

 bouquet for the blue and white ginger jar that she 

 keeps for stray posies on the sill of the long window 

 above the kitchen table, and promised her a row of 

 geraniums to fill the shelf, a frilled curtain for the 

 top, and a canary, things that made the Somerset 

 kitchen so quaintly attractive ; for stiff as Martha is, 

 she is not ashamed of loving flowers, in fact, such an 

 idea would never occur to her. Still, I'm afraid that 

 they will not be as " heartening " as the home-brewed. 



