his in his cradle and
gave him what he called a lucky name, to begin with. The wife of the
elder Mr. Argenter had been a Muchmore; her only brother had been
named Increase, either out of oddity, such as influenced a certain
Mr. Crabtree whom I have heard of, to call his son Agreen, or
because the old Puritan name had been in the family, or with a like
original inspiration of luck and thrift to that which influenced the
later christening, if you can call it such; and now, therefore,
resulted Increase Muchmore Argenter. The father hung, as it were, a
charm around his son's neck, as Catholics do, giving saints' names
to their children. But young Increase found it, in his earlier
years, rather of the nature of a millstone. It was a good while, for
instance, before Miss Maria Thorndike could make up her mind to take
upon herself such a title. She did not much mind it now. "I.M.
Argenter" was such a good signature at the bottom of a check; and
the surname was quite musical and elegant. "Mrs. Argenter" was all
she had put upon her cards. There was no other Mrs. Argenter to be
confounded with. The name stood by itself in the Directory. All the
rest of the Argenters were away down in Maine in Poggowantimoc.

"Living out of town as we do." Mrs. Argenter always put that in. It
was the nut that fastened all her screws of argument.

"Away out here as we are, we _must_ keep an expert cook, you know;
we can't send out for bread and cake, and salads and soups, on an
emergency, as we did in town." "We _must_ have a seamstress in the
house the year round; it is such a bother driving about a ten-mile
circuit after one in a hurry;" and now,--"Sylvie _ought_ to have a
little vehicle of her own, she is so far away from all her friends;
no running in and out and making little daily plans, as girls do in
a neighborhood. All the girls of her class have their own
pony-chaises now; it is a part of the plan of living."

"It isn't any part of _my_ plan," said Mr. Argenter, who had his
little spasms of returning to old-fashioned ideas he was brought up
in, but had long ago practically deserted; and these spasms mostly
took him, it must be said, in response to new propositions of Mrs.
Argenter's. His own plans evolved gradually; he came to them by
imperceptible steps of mental process, or outward constraint; Mrs.
Argenter's "jumped" at him, took him at unawares, and by sudden
impinging upon solid shield of permanent judgment struck out sparks
of