o be an addition--a small
snuggery; there was to be frescoing, and hardwood flooring was to be put
into such rooms as had not yet been subjected to this improvement.

Furthermore, in one of the daily papers appeared a brief notice to the
effect that Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier were contemplating a summer sojourn
abroad, and that their handsome residence on Esplanade Street was
undergoing sumptuous alterations, and would not be ready for occupancy
until their return. Mr. Pontellier had saved appearances!

Edna admired the skill of his maneuver, and avoided any occasion to balk
his intentions. When the situation as set forth by Mr. Pontellier was
accepted and taken for granted, she was apparently satisfied that it
should be so.

The pigeon house pleased her. It at once assumed the intimate character
of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm which it reflected
like a warm glow. There was with her a feeling of having descended in
the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the
spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from
obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She
began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper
undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to "feed upon opinion"
when her own soul had invited her.

After a little while, a few days, in fact, Edna went up and spent a week
with her children in Iberville. They were delicious February days, with
all the summer's promise hovering in the air.

How glad she was to see the children! She wept for very pleasure when
she felt their little arms clasping her; their hard, ruddy cheeks
pressed against her own glowing cheeks. She looked into their faces with
hungry eyes that could not be satisfied with looking. And what stories
they had to tell their mother! About the pigs, the cows, the mules!
About riding to the mill behind Gluglu; fishing back in the lake with
their Uncle Jasper; picking pecans with Lidie's little black brood, and
hauling chips in their express wagon. It was a thousand times more fun
to haul real chips for old lame Susie's real fire than to drag painted
blocks along the banquette on Esplanade Street!

She went with them herself to see the pigs and the cows, to look at the
darkies laying the cane, to thrash the pecan trees, and catch fish in
the back lake. She lived with them a whole week long, giving them all of
herself, and gathering and filling herse