gements of the keepers of average
boarding-houses. In the Malvern house, one whole floor, which was less
pleasant than the others, but still comfortable and well furnished, was
occupied by the family. There were three little boys, under ten years of
age, who had their nursery governess, said lessons to her regularly, and
were led out decorously to walk by her at appointed seasons, like all the
rest of good little English boys in well-regulated families; and yet the
mother of these children came to the door of our parlor each morning, with
the respectful air of an old family housekeeper, to ask what we would have
for dinner, and was careful and exact in buying "three penn'orth" of herbs
at a time for us, to season our soup. I ought to mention that in both
these places we made the greater part of our purchases ourselves, having
weekly bills sent in from the shops, and in our names, exactly as if we
were living in our own house. All honest lodging-house keepers, we were
told, preferred this method, as leaving no opening for any unjust
suspicions of their fairness in providing. But, if one chooses to be as
absolutely free from trouble as in boarding, the marketing can all be done
by the family, and the bills still made out in the lodgers' names. I have
been thus minute in my details because I think there may be many to whom
this system of living is as unknown as it was to me; and I cannot but hope
that it may yet be introduced in America.

Wet the Clay.

Once I stood in Miss Hosmer's studio, looking at a statue which she was
modelling of the ex-queen of Naples. Face to face with the clay model, I
always feel the artist's creative power far more than when I am looking at
the immovable marble.

A touch here--there--and all is changed. Perhaps, under my eyes, in the
twinkling of an eye, one trait springs into life and another disappears.

The queen, who is a very beautiful woman, was represented in Miss Hosmer's
statue as standing, wearing the picturesque cloak that she wore during
those hard days of garrison life at Gaeta, when she showed herself so
brave and strong that the world said if she, instead of that very stupid
young man her husband, had been king, the throne need not have been lost.
The very cloak, made of light cloth showily faced with scarlet, was draped
over a lay figure in one corner of the room. In the statue the folds of
drapery over the right arm were entirely disarranged, simply rough clay.
The d