worldliness there were touching glimpses
of domesticity and heart: a young bride fed her husband soup from her
own plate with her spoon, unabashed by the publicity; a mother and her
two pretty daughters hung about a handsome officer, who must have been
newly betrothed to one of the girls; and, the whole family showed a
helpless fondness for him, which he did not despise, though he held it
in check; the girls dressed alike, and seemed to have for their whole
change of costume a difference from time to time in the color of their
sleeves. The Marches believed they had seen the growth of the romance
which had eventuated so happily; and they saw other romances which
did not in any wise eventuate. Carlsbad was evidently one of the great
marriage marts of middle Europe, where mothers brought their daughters
to be admired, and everywhere the flower of life was blooming for the
hand of love. It blew by on all the promenades in dresses and hats as
pretty as they could be bought or imagined; but it was chiefly at Pupp's
that it flourished. For the most part it seemed to flourish in vain, and
to be destined to be put by for another season to dream, bulblike, of
the coming summer in the quiet of Moldavian and Transylvanian homes.

Perhaps it was oftener of fortunate effect than the spectators knew; but
for their own pleasure they would not have had their pang for it less;
and March objected to having a more explicit demand upon his sympathy.
"We could have managed," he said, at the close of their dinner, as he
looked compassionately round upon the parterre of young girls, "we could
have managed with Burnamy and Miss Triscoe; but to have Mrs. Adding and
Kenby launched upon us is too much. Of course I like Kenby, and if the
widow alone were concerned I would give him my blessing: a wife more or
a widow less is not going to disturb the equilibrium of the universe;
but--" He stopped, and then he went on: "Men and women are well enough.
They complement each other very agreeably, and they have very good times
together. But why should they get in love?--It is sure to make them
uncomfortable to themselves and annoying to others." He broke off, and
stared about him. "My dear, this is really charming--almost as charming
as the Posthof." The crowd spread from the open vestibule of the hotel
and the shelter of its branching pavilion roofs until it was dimmed in
the obscurity of the low grove across the way in an ultimate depth
where the musicia