COMMUTER'S WIFE 303 



all her arrangements through my mistake, I wish 

 to ask her here, where she will be as free as possible 

 from the village questioning that her resolve is sure 

 to call forth." 



I am much relieved that there is nothing com- 

 plicated about the visit. I see nothing strange in 

 her choice. Nursing always attracted me, and she 

 probably wants to understand how to care for sick 

 people properly, and perhaps have convalescents 

 sometimes share in her big house. 



Father had but gone indoors when the Lady of 

 the Bluffs drove up, seemingly quite surprised to see 

 me clothed and in what she considers my right mind, 

 lying back in a piazza chair. 



"Well, this is most unusual!" she gasped after 

 taking the stiffest seat. She always was breathless 

 on moving ; for her dress waist, which looked fluffy 

 and easy enough, was, I am sure, extremely tight 

 underneath, where some sort of rigid bar gave the 

 straight downward slope affected by Queen Bess, to 

 a form that naturally would express itself in the 

 one or more hillocks common to well-fed middle 

 age. 



"To find you at 5 P.M. actually sitting still and 

 playing the lady ! Is your garden dead or are you 

 tired of it ? Mine is, or rather my fernery. Would 



