I've had the shivers steadily ever since we landed." She pulled her fur
cape closer about her ears as she spoke.

"Why, what can you want different from this?" asked Imogen, surprised.
"It's a lovely day. We haven't had a drop of rain since last night."

"That is quite true, and remarkable as true; but somehow I don't feel
any warmer than I did when it rained. Ah, here comes the tea. Let me
pour it, Mrs. Page. I make awfully good tea. Such nice, thick cream!
but, oh, dear!--here is more of that awful bread."

It was a stout household loaf, of the sort invariable in south-county
England, substantial, crusty, and tough, with a "nubbin" on top, and in
consistency something between pine wood and sole leather. Miss Opdyke,
after filling her cups, proceeded to cut the loaf in slices, protesting
as she did so that it "creaked in the chewing," and that

"The muscular strength that it gave to her jaw
Would last her the rest of her life."

"Why, what sort of bread do you have in America?" demanded Imogen,
astonished and offended by the frankness of these strictures. "This is
the sort every one eats here. I'm sure it's excellent. What is there
about it that you don't like?"

"Oh, everything. Wait till you taste our American bread, and you'll
understand,--or rather, our breads, for we have dozens of kinds, each
more delicious than the last. Wait till you eat corn-bread and waffles."

"I've always been told that the American food was dreadfully messy,"
observed Imogen, nettled into reprisals; "pepper on eggs, and all that
sort of thing,--very messy and nasty, indeed."

"Well, we _have_ deviated from the English method as to the eating of
eggs, I admit. I know it's correct to chip the shell, and eat all the
white at one end by itself, with a little salt, and then all the yellow
in the middle, and last of all the white at the other end by itself; but
there are bold spirits among us who venture to stir and mix. Fools rush
in, you know; they _will_ do it, even where Britons fear to tread."

"We stopped at Northam to see Sir Amyas Leigh's house," Mrs. Page was
saying to Lionel. "It's really very interesting to visit the spots where
celebrated people have lived. There is a sad lack of such places in
America. We are such a new country. Lilly and Miss Opdyke walked up to
the hill where Mrs. Leigh stood to see the Spanish ship come in,--quite
fascinating, they said it was."

"You must be sure to stay long enoug