f resenting the
liberty he took with my mother-in-law's cognomen.

"Oh, yes, I know, but the name is too long; and besides, she reminds one
of a full-blown pink, a little on the fade, perhaps, but still with a
good deal of bloom about her. Is she going to live with you? Precious
fine time you will have!" he added, having received his answer by a nod.
"She'll boss the shebang, you bet!"

"Oh, I guess not," I answered, not liking his slangy way of talking
about my affairs, and resolving in my own mind that I would be master in
my own house.

"Well, then there'll be a fine old tussle for supremacy, and don't you
forget it!"

With this remark Fred wandered off down the dusty road, humming Madame
Angot, and I drew up a chair by Bessie's side. She had evidently been
wishing I would come. Mr. Desmond was sitting a little apart from the
rest, twisting his fingers in his watch-chain and looking intently at
the mountain-top opposite, as if expecting somebody to come over with a
dispatch for him. Mrs. Pinkerton sat by her daughter's side in calm
grandeur, her gray puffs--that fine silver-gray that comes prematurely
on aristocratic brows--seeming like appendages of a queenly diadem. Miss
Van had been diverting the company with a lively account of her day's
adventures. She was always having adventures, and had a faculty of
relating them that was little short of genius.

"Well, my dear, are you having a good time?" I murmured in Bessie's ear.

"Oh, yes; but I was feeling a little lonesome without you."

The conversation degenerated into commonplace about the scenery and
points of interest in the neighborhood, and after a while the company
dispersed with polite good-evenings.

When we reached our room, I remarked to Bessie, who seemed more quiet
than usual, "I hope your mother will like it here."

"Oh, yes, I guess she will like it when she has been here a little
while," was the answer. "You know she has not been away from home much,
of late years, except to the seaside with the Watsons and other of her
old friends, and she does not adapt herself readily to strange company."

I said nothing more, but was absorbed in thought about my mother-in-law.
It is evident by this time that she was no ordinary woman, no coarse or
waspish mother-in-law, but a woman of good breeding and the highest
character. She was intelligent and well-informed, a consistent member of
the Episcopal Church, with the highest views of propriety and a
rev