eorgiana gently, lifting quizzical eyebrows, "I've
never happened to see any farmer's wife thus equipped, but there's no
reason why you shouldn't set the fashion. I suppose you will wear green
silk stockings and bronze pumps with this picturesque tramping costume,
with a bronze buckle in your hat to complete the ensemble. All you will
then need will be a beautiful painted drop of the Forest of Arden----"

"You unkind thing! If _you_ begin to scoff----"

"But I won't. I know there's heaps of sense in your pretty head, and
you'll make Jimps the most satisfying sort of a wife even though you
don't carry the eggs to market or milk the cows. There's no reason why
you should, with your own private income. Jimps is too wise to forbid
your spending it to decorate both your lives, for he knows you couldn't
stand real wear and tear, while a reasonable amount of country life will
make you stronger. Go ahead, dear; hang English chintzes at the
farmhouse windows, set up your baby grand piano in that nice, old
living-room, and hang jolly hunting prints in the dining-room. Wear the
corduroys--only, instead of bronze pumps, I should advise----"

"You needn't. I've got them. The heaviest kind of tanned buckskin boots.
And you all may laugh, but you just wait!"

"I'm not laughing; you know I'm not. I wish I could help you by
convincing Aunt Olivia that you don't need some of the things she
insists on including. But, since I can't, I'll comfort you by assuring
you that Jefferson says he's counting on your being one of the sort who
will prove the great contention--that beauty and poetry _can_ be brought
into the farmhouse."

Thus spoke Georgiana, though in her heart of hearts, as she watched
Jeannette in all her costly elegance, at counter after counter,
selecting supplies of one sort or another, she couldn't help having her
doubts whether a lifelong training in luxury could be turned into a
fitness for living, in spite of many mitigations, the truly simple life.
These doubts, however, she suppressed, only dropping a word of caution
here and there, which Jeannette took kindly, being eager to prove
herself practical, and undoubtedly sincere in her longing to bring to
James Stuart the helpmate he needed.

So came on the great day; and when it had arrived, and the Craigs were
guests of Aunt Olivia, making ready for the ceremony, Georgiana had her
chance to return to Stuart the support he had given her in the hour of
her own marriage. Sh