TEE HOUSE OF HAPPY HOURS 



19 



THE HOUSE OF HAPPY HOURS 



this once. I am telling our garden good- 

 by, for I do not wish to look at it in the 

 morning if I can help it." 



"Are 3'ou all packed and read}''?" he 

 asked, listlessl}'. 



"All packed — and ready, as soon as I 

 have finished my thinking/' she said. 



A peal of childish laughter came from 

 the hall, where the children were playing, 

 and a mocking-bird was trilling and lilting 

 on a bough of the ilex tree. 



They walked on together — ^he weary, 

 sore and baffled in the struggle for foot- 

 hold among the jostling multitudes of men 

 fighting for livelihood and comfort, and 

 the wife utterly discouraged and grieved. 

 She had consented to the sale of the home, 

 not cheerfully, but without protest,, for it 

 seemed the only way for them to get an- 

 other start after the disaster which had 

 left them almost entirely without re- 

 sources. The needs of a growing family 

 were to be met, so there was no time for 

 Mr. Waring to wait and look about him 

 for work which would be congenial. He 



must avail himself of the first opportunity 

 which presented itself, and so their plans 

 were all perfected for their removal on 

 the morrow to a growing young manufac- 

 turing city in a distant part of the state, a 

 place which seemed a good one for him to 

 open an office as architect and builder. 



Mr. and Mrs. Waring had put aside as 

 much as possible the thought of leaving 

 the home which had been so sweet to them, 

 to fall into the hands of strangers, who 

 could feel no abiding interest in it. He 

 was not so passionately attached to the 

 place as was she, nor so girt about with its 

 tender associations, but the grief of it to 

 him was in the knowledge of what the 

 change meant to her. 



They did not talk as they walked up and 

 down the garden path, but there was a 

 subtle instinct which told him what was 

 in her mind ; memories of sunshiny days, 

 and long pleasant evenings on the veranda, 

 with sweet odors stealing in from the 

 flowers on either side, memories of heaps 

 of blossoms gathered for bridal occasions, 



