urance, that she had always lived with ladies and gentlemen and people
who were somebody. The incident had tended further to detract from the
romance of the country.

It is a mistake to suppose that the honeymoon disappears below the
horizon with the rapidity of a tropical sun. And there is generally an
afterglow. In spite of cooks and other minor clouds, in spite of visions
of metropolitan triumphs (not shattered, but put away in camphor), life
was touched with a certain novelty. There was a new runabout and a horse
which Honora could drive herself, and she went to the station to meet
her husband. On mild Saturday and Sunday afternoons they made long
excursions, into the country--until the golf season began, when the
lessons begun at Silverdale were renewed. But after a while certain male
competitors appeared, and the lessons were discontinued. Sunday, after
his pile of newspapers had religiously been disposed of, became a field
day. Indeed, it is impossible, without a twinge of pity, to behold
Howard taking root in Rivington, for we know that sooner or later he
will be dug up and transplanted. The soil was congenial. He played poker
on the train with the Rivington husbands, and otherwise got along with
them famously. And it was to him an enigma--when occasionally he allowed
his thoughts to dwell upon such trivial matters--why Honora was not
equally congenial with the wives.

There were, no doubt, interesting people in Rivington about whom many
stories could be written: people with loves and fears and anxieties and
joys, with illnesses and recoveries, with babies, but few grandchildren.
There were weddings at the little church, and burials; there were
dances at the golf club; there were Christmas trees, where most of the
presents--like Honora's--came from afar, from family centres formed in a
social period gone by; there were promotions for the heads of families,
and consequent rejoicings over increases of income; there were movings;
there were--inevitable in the ever grinding action of that remorseless
law, the survival of the fittest--commercial calamities, and the
heartrending search for new employment.

Rivington called upon Honora in vehicles of all descriptions, in
proportion to the improvidence or prosperity of the owners. And Honora
returned the calls, and joined the Sewing Circle, and the Woman's
Luncheon Club, which met for the purpose of literary discussion. In the
evenings there were little dinners of six