ins. These did
duty for rugs on the floor. Elk and buffalo horns fastened on the walls
served as pegs on which to hang whips and hats. Some gay Mexican pots
adorned the chimney-piece; it all looked pretty enough and quite
comfortable. Imogen would fain have tried her hand at home-made devices
of the sort in which the ladies at the lower house excelled, but somehow
her attempts turned out failures. She lacked lightness of touch and
originality of fancy, and the results were apt to be what Elsie
privately stigmatized as "wapses of red flannel and burlaps without
form or comeliness," at which Lionel jeered, while visitors discreetly
averted their eyes lest they should be forced to express an opinion
concerning them.

Imogen's views as to the character and capacities of American women
underwent many modifications during that first summer in the Valley. It
seemed to her that Mrs. Templestowe and her sister were equal to any
emergency however sudden and unexpected. She was filled with daily
wonder over their knowledge of practical details, and their
extraordinary "handiness." If a herder met with an accident they seemed
to know just what to do. If Choo Loo was taken with a cramp or some odd
Chinese disease without a name, and laid aside for a day or two, Clover
not only nursed him but went into the kitchen as a matter of course, and
extemporized a meal which was sufficiently satisfactory for all
concerned. If a guest arrived unexpectedly they were not put out; if
some article of daily supply failed, they seemed always able to devise
a substitute; and through all and every contingency they managed to look
pretty and bright and gracious, and make sunshine in the shadiest
places.

Slowly, for Imogen's mind was not of the quick working order, she took
all this in, and her respect for America and Americans rose accordingly.
She was forced to own that whatever the rest of womankind in this
extraordinary new country might be, these particular specimens were of a
sort which any land, even England, might be justly proud to claim.

"And with all they do, they contrive to look so nice," she said to
herself. "I can't understand how they manage it. Their gowns fit so
well, and they always seem to have just the right kind of thing to put
on. It is really wonderful, and it certainly isn't because they think a
great deal about it. Before I came over I always imagined that American
women spent their time in reading fashion magazines and ta