o speak of the play, and he was so
funny about some things in it that he made Cornelia laugh. He took
leave of them when the owner of the seat came back. He told Mrs.
Montgomery he should not see her again this time; but at the end of the
play they found him waiting for them at the outer door of the theatre.
He skipped lightly into step with them. "Thought I might as well see
you home, as they say in Pymantoning. Do' know as I shall be back for
quite a while, this next trip, and we don't see much ladies' society on
the road; at least, _I_ don't. I'm not so easy to make acquaintance as
I used to be. I suppose it was being married so long. I can't manage to
help a pretty girl raise a car-window, or put her grip into the rack,
the way I could once. Fact is, there don't seem to _be_ so many pretty
girls as there were, or else I'm gettin' old-sighted, and can't see
'em."

He spoke to Mrs. Montgomery, but Cornelia knew he was talking at her.
Now he leaned forward and addressed her across Mrs. Montgomery: "Do'
know as I told you that I saw your mother in Lakeland day before
yesterday, Miss Saunders."

"Oh, did you?" Cornelia eagerly besought him. The apparition of her
mother rose before her; it was almost like having her actually there,
to meet some one who had seen her so lately. "Was she looking well? The
last letter she wrote she hadn't been very----"

"Well, I guess she's all right, now. You know _I_ think your mother is
about the finest woman in this world, Miss Nelie, and the
prettiest-looking. I've never told you about Mrs. Saunders, have I,
Mrs. Montgomery? Well, you wouldn't know but her and Miss Nelie were
sisters. She looks like a girl, a little way off; and she _is_ a girl,
in her feelings. She's got the kindest heart, and she's the best person
_I_ ever saw. I tell you, it would be a different sort of a world if
everybody was like Mrs. Saunders, and I should ha' been a different
sort of a man if I'd always appreciated her goodness. Well, so it
goes," he said, with a sigh of indefinite regret, which availed with
Cornelia because it was mixed with praise of her mother; it made her
feel safer with him and more tolerant. He leaned forward again, and
said across Mrs. Montgomery, as before: "She was gettin' off the train
from Pymantoning, and I was just takin' my train West, but I knew it
was her as soon as I saw her walk. I was half a mind to stop and speak
to her, and let my train go."

Cornelia could see her moth