the history of Mrs. Tilley's best room from its very beginning.

"You see for yourself what beautiful rugs she could make; now I'm going
to show you her best tea things she thought so much of," said the master
of the house, opening the door of a shallow cupboard. "That's real
chiny, all of it on those two shelves," he told me proudly. "I bought
it all myself, when we was first married, in the port of Bordeaux. There
never was one single piece of it broke until-- Well, I used to say,
long as she lived, there never was a piece broke, but long at the last I
noticed she'd look kind o' distressed, an' I thought 'twas 'count o' me
boastin'. When they asked if they should use it when the folks was here
to supper, time o' her funeral, I knew she'd want to have everything
nice, and I said 'certain.' Some o' the women they come runnin' to me
an' called me, while they was takin' of the chiny down, an' showed me
there was one o' the cups broke an' the pieces wropped in paper and
pushed way back here, corner o' the shelf. They didn't want me to go an'
think they done it. Poor dear! I had to put right out o' the house when
I see that. I knowed in one minute how 'twas. We'd got so used to sayin'
'twas all there just's I fetched it home, an' so when she broke that cup
somehow or 'nother she couldn't frame no words to come an' tell me. She
couldn't think 'twould vex me, 'twas her own hurt pride. I guess there
wa'n't no other secret ever lay between us."

The French cups with their gay sprigs of pink and blue, the best
tumblers, an old flowered bowl and tea caddy, and a japanned waiter or
two adorned the shelves. These, with a few daguerreotypes in a little
square pile, had the closet to themselves, and I was conscious of much
pleasure in seeing them. One is shown over many a house in these days
where the interest may be more complex, but not more definite.

"Those were her best things, poor dear," said Elijah as he locked the
door again. "She told me that last summer before she was taken away that
she couldn't think o' anything more she wanted, there was everything in
the house, an' all her rooms was furnished pretty. I was goin' over to
the Port, an' inquired for errands. I used to ask her to say what she
wanted, cost or no cost--she was a very reasonable woman, an' 'twas the
place where she done all but her extra shopping. It kind o' chilled me
up when she spoke so satisfied."

"You don't go out fishing after Christmas?" I asked, a