she thought mamma should have insomnia--for
there was nothing whatever on her mind, and they say that's the cause,
you know. She gave me the strangest look.

"'Are you sure your mother has nothing on her mind?' she asked me,
'your mother's very deep, you know!'

"'What nonsense, Miss Jessop!' I told her. 'Mamma's as open as the
day!'"

Elliot laughed.

"Sensible woman, your Miss Jessop," he said.

"Oh, I don't know. She was very decided, certainly, and easy in her
ways. More so than I quite like in a trained nurse. I will say for
her, though, that the out-of-doors idea was hers. Though father was
quite alarmed about it."

"That's what I say. Father doesn't understand her."

"Oh, Elly, how can you? Every one says there never were two people so
suited to each other. There's not one wish of father's she doesn't
carry out, and never has been."

"I don't say not," he agreed, "but that merely shows what a good,
clever wife she is. That doesn't say he understands her. He certainly
never understood me, I know; Uncle John didn't either."

"But you were always--always--_queer_, you know, Elly," she explained
deprecatingly.

"Was I?" he questioned lightly. "Mamma understood me, all the same.
So perhaps she's 'queer,' too."

"Nonsense," Wilhelmina said briefly. "Mamma is like anybody else, only
a great deal cleverer."

"Maybe, maybe," he repeated thoughtfully. "But she always gives me the
impression of having something up her sleeve. She said a strange thing
to me after my little girls--the twins, you know--were born. She was
holding them out in the orange grove, and saying such sweet things to
Maddelina, and then she turned to me suddenly and said,

"'Have I been a good mother to you, Elliot?'

"'Why, madre, you've been perfect,' I said.

"'Is there anything more you think I could ever do for you?' she asked.

"'Honestly, dear, I don't think there is,' I said.

"'That's all I wanted to know,' she said, and sailed the next day....
What's the matter? How strange you look!"

"It's only that she said just that to me, last week," Wilhelmina told
him, "and left the next day for New York. But I supposed it was to get
back to father. She depends so on him."

"Do you really think so?" he asked curiously.

But every one agreed with Wilhelmina--perhaps because Wilhelmina very
seldom said anything that any one was likely to disagree with--and so
every one was much surprised at the comparatively sho