ng
tongue. She was a forward, good-natured, empty-headed woman, who
persisted in talking, whether I listened or not, and who had a habit of
perpetually addressing me as "Mrs. Woodville," which I thought a little
overfamiliar as an assertion of equality from a person in her position
to a person in mine.

We had been out, I should think, more than half an hour, when we
overtook a lady walking before us on the beach.

Just as we were about to pass the stranger she took her handkerchief
from her pocket, and accidentally drew out with it a letter, which fell
unnoticed by her, on the sand. I was nearest to the letter, and I picked
it up and offered it to the lady.

The instant she turned to thank me, I stood rooted to the spot. There
was the original of the photographic portrait in the dressing-case!
there was my husband's mother, standing face to face with me! I
recognized the quaint little gray curls, the gentle, genial expression,
the mole at the corner of the mouth. No mistake was possible. His mother
herself!

The old lady, naturally enough, mistook my confusion for shyness. With
perfect tact and kindness she entered into conversation with me. In
another minute I was walking side by side with the woman who had sternly
repudiated me as a member of her family; feeling, I own, terribly
discomposed, and not knowing in the least whether I ought or ought not
to assume the responsibility, in my husband's absence, of telling her
who I was.

In another minute my familiar landlady, walking on the other side of
my mother-in-law, decided the question for me. I happened to say that
I supposed we must by that time be near the end of our walk--the little
watering-place called Broadstairs. "Oh no, Mrs. Woodville!" cried the
irrepressible woman, calling me by my name, as usual; "nothing like so
near as you think!"

I looked with a beating heart at the old lady.

To my unutterable amazement, not the faintest gleam of recognition
appeared in her face. Old Mrs. Woodville went on talking to young Mrs.
Woodville just as composedly as if she had never heard her own name
before in her life!

My face and manner must have betrayed something of the agitation that I
was suffering. Happening to look at me at the end of her next sentence,
the old lady started, and said, in her kindly way,

"I am afraid you have overexerted yourself. You are very pale--you are
looking quite exhausted. Come and sit down here; let me lend you my
smelling-bo