here alive again." And finally, when he and the children couldn't
find anything more to climb, I managed to move them on to Aix, and here
I am.

And, of course, the English season has just finished, and the French
people haven't begun to come yet, and Aix is hot, and dull, and empty!
Really, isn't it trying? There are even only second-rate cocottes
about, none of the smart ones yet! I am dying of the blues. Besides I
have to take the baths, although I don't want them, because the only
way I managed to persuade John to come here was by pretending I
_needed_ them! When I think of you in Newport, in spite of the heat,
leading an absolutely ideal life with your visits, your dinners, and
your balls, I am green with envy. These are the times when life seems
really almost too complicated to worry through. Or course if I were
like John's sister Margaret, sort of half-crazy, who loves the real
country, prefers a farmhouse to a hotel, fields and woods to a casino,
I might get on well enough. But I consider that nothing short of a
morbid state of mind.

If you love me, write me soon, and cheer me up. But don't tell me of
too much going on with you, or it will be more than I can bear. If you
could honestly say that it was rather a dull season in Newport this
year, you don't know what a comfort it would be. I do hope John and the
children appreciate the sacrifice I am making for them. I'm sure I try
to have them realize it. It only shows what we mothers will do for our
children.

With love, your affectionate, but depressed,

GERALDINE.

P.S.--Of course, as you can imagine, the shops at Lucerne were filthy.
I didn't buy a thing except some presents for the servants. At Aix the
shops are better, but with so few people here, somehow one has no
inspiration. I've bought literally nothing except five hats.

The Children

Three Dialogues

I. Divorce.
II. Birth.
III. Death.

I

_Divorce._

TOM BARNES, _age ten, whose mother, Mrs. Barnes, having divorced his
father, her second husband, has since remarried, and is now Mrs.
Fenley._

CLAIRE WORTHING, _age seven, whose mother, Mrs. Worthing, having
divorced her Father to marry the divorced Mr. Barnes, is now Mrs.
Barnes._

SCENE, _a Fashionable Dancing School in New York. A quadrille has been
announced. Master Barnes goes up to Miss Claire and bowing somewhat
stiffly, mumbles some not altogether intelligible wards. Miss
Claire, slidi