before the bed, and there are little lace mats under
the vases. The scent of dried rose leaves and lavender mingles with the
perfume of the pinks; and some of the summer house pagodas on the wall
are hidden with old-fashioned steel engravings and photographs in
home-made frames.

I didn't stop to examine the pictures at first, but after Patty and Ide
had tripped away ("to see about my dinner," they said) I was attracted
by a faded cabinet photograph framed with shells. It was a full length
figure of a young man on horseback. He was dressed something like those
splendid cowboys they took me to see at Earlscourt when I was a little
girl, and the face was Mr. Brett's. It was so handsome and dashing I
could hardly stop staring at it while I washed off the dust of
motoring. Evidently the photograph in its frame has been on the wall a
long time. I am glad they happened to put it in what they call the
"spare room," so I can look at it whenever I like without anyone
noticing.

XVII

ABOUT COWS AND NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

When I went downstairs, dinner was ready in a cool, shady dining-room,
with a bare floor painted brown, and a long table down the middle. It
wasn't quite two o'clock, but it turned out that the family had had
their dinner at noon exactly, and this was a meal only for Mr. Brett
and me, with Patty and Ide to bring us things from the kitchen and wait
upon us, while Mrs. Trowbridge flitted in smiling from time to time, to
ask how we were "getting along." It was she who was cooking for us, and
I felt quite distressed at the trouble I was giving, on such a hot day,
too, but she said she was enjoying it.

It was a very funny dinner, according to my ideas, for I never had a
meal a bit like it at home, even when I was small and dined in the
daytime with the governess. But it was tremendously good, though none
of the things went together properly. We had delicious young
chicken--quite babies they were, poor dears--fried with cream; and
wreathed all round our plates in a semicircle were a quantity of tiny
dishes. Each one had a big dab of something different in it; mashed
potatoes, succotash, green peas, a kind of vegetable marrow to which
they gave the unworthy name of "squash," raw tomatoes, sweet green
pickles, preserved strawberries, and goodness knows what all besides;
while, if we stopped eating to breathe or speak, Patty flew in with a
plate of freshly-made things of the most heavenly nature, calle