-fashioned railing around it, the back of the desk being toward me. When we entered the office no person was visible behind the desk, and no sounds of it being occupied reached my ears; but

resently, turning again, I saw it bob up and as quickly bob down; and as this was repeated five or six times during the interview, it made me, in turn, curious to learn th

very slowly, because of the weary day we had had--"at la

express my opinion. All I said was, "I

r them, but it looks well to have them, and to speak of them to our friends in an off-hand way. Then the fruit trees--what money it will save us, gathering the fruit quite fresh as we want it! I have in my eye the paper for the drawing and dining rooms; and your study, my

guine temperament and her indomitable resolution. Her pluck, her endurance, her persistence, were beyond praise; such women are cut out for pioneers in difficult undertakings; they never give in, they never know when they are beaten. In the midst of her glo

" he said, speaking with difficulty, "

expectation. I felt that he had come after us on a purely personal matter, and as I gazed at him I had an odd impression that, at

e," whispered my wife. "I hope it is no worse than

endid chance was gone and the hous

to excuse me if I am mistaken. I think not, for I seem to rec

had known him in earli

gne he spoke it aloud, and I recognized it as that of an old school friend. It so stirred me that I fear yo

, they invited Bob at my urgent request to spend a week with us, and he spent two, three--all the time, indeed, that we were away from home. There at the seaside he taught me to swim, and we had days of enjoyment so vivid that the memory of them came back to me fresh and bright even after this lapse of years. How changed he was! He was a plump, rosy-cheeked boy, and he had grown into a thin, spare, elderly man, with all the plumpness and all the rosiness squeezed clean out of him. It was a

wife, "this is my old

id reproachfully; "don't dr

I rejoined. "You have had a tussle with fo

ew of any misfortune that happened to him; "but a meeting like this makes up for a lot. What does the old song say? 'Bad luck can't be prevented.' Well,

. Have you done w

es

a-dinner, unless," I added, "the

," he said rather mourn

mar

but I lo

is hand sym

yourself for company; and I am burning to hear what you have to tell us about the house in Lamb's Terrac

ithin thirty yards of our house--our dear old

sing room, and we had

ldren?"

d us sorrow at first, but

, in

as our tea-dinner already prepared, with one or tw

berty Hall; we haven't a bit of pride in us, although my dear wife her

e, Mr. Millet," said

d Bob; "it is always pleasant to

he bustled away to see to some domestic matters, while the mai

about that delightful