he ever took was to put type-writing machines in the bank!"

"Then, is it you?" he demanded, and smiled gravely, for her dignified
young matronhood was his pride.

"It may come out in me later," she threatened, "for Appleyards don't
change, you know."

But old Mr. Appleyard, who perhaps knew more instances of the tradition
than he imparted to his daughter, died peacefully at seventy-two, the
accepted Appleyard age for that process, convinced that he, at last,
had produced two steady children: he was a little worried about his
grandson, young Elliot, who displayed a freakish talent for composing
and performing music for the violin, and an unfortunate preference for
the society of professional musicians, of which his mother seemed
almost culpably tolerant, not to say proud. The arts were rising,
socially, in that generation, and Elliot was actually excused from an
examination in ethics for the purpose of attending a concert by the
Boston Symphony Society.

By this time, of course, they had returned from their European period.
It had been a brilliant ten years, and Mrs. Lestrange had met most
royalties and all travelling Americans of any consequence--all with the
same gracious dignity, the same delicate balance of charm and reserve
that delighted foreigner and compatriot alike. Her portrait was
painted by a great German, her bust was modelled by a great Frenchman,
the words of a little lullaby she had composed for her baby girl was
set to music and made famous through Europe by a great Italian. Queen
Victoria complimented her on her devoted personal care of her children,
and sent her an autographed _carte de visite_, as they were still
called then, framed in brilliants. The silver trowel with which she
laid the foundation stone of her school for instructing the
peasant-girls of her adopted country in the simple household arts is
still a bone of contention between her two proud children. A duke
stood godfather to her little Wilhelmina and Royalty herself
embroidered at least one frill of the baby's christening robe.

When the children were twelve and fourteen, however, the family
returned; papered, painted and decorated the house anew from top to
bottom, and settled down to the task that had brought them back--the
bringing up of their boy and girl in an American tradition. If Mrs.
Lestrange ever missed the polish and variety of European social life,
if she found the "Anglo-mania" (just then so fashionable in New