xcitement of the city and the repose of the country, and who
aspire to unite the enjoyment of both in their daily existence.
The suburbs of the metropolis stretch landward fifty miles in every
direction; and everywhere are handsome villas like Leonard's, inhabited
by men like himself, whom strict study of the time-table enables to
spend all their working hours in the city and all their smoking and
sleeping hours in the country.

The home and the neighborhood of the Leonards put on their best looks
for our bridal pair, and they were charmed. They all enjoyed the visit,
said guests and hosts, they were all sorry to have it come to an end;
yet they all resigned themselves to this conclusion. Practically, it had
no other result than to detain the travellers into the very heart of
the hot weather. In that weather it was easy to do anything that did
not require an active effort, and resignation was so natural with the
mercury at ninety, that I am not sure but there was something sinful in
it.

They had given up their cherished purpose of going to Albany by the day
boat, which was represented to them in every impossible phase. It
would be dreadfully crowded, and whenever it stopped the heat would be
insupportable. Besides it would bring them to Albany at an hour when
they must either spend the night there, or push on to Niagara by the
night train. "You had better go by the evening boat. It will be light
almost till you reach West Point, and you'll see all the best scenery.
Then you can get a good night's rest, and start fresh in the morning."
So they were counseled, and they assented, as they would have done if
they had been advised: "You had better go by the morning boat. It's
deliciously cool, travelling; you see the whole of the river, you reach
Albany for supper, and you push through to Niagara that night and are
done with it."

They took leave of Leonard at breakfast and of his wife at noon, and
fifteen minutes later they were rushing from the heat of the country
into the heat of the city, where some affairs and pleasures were to
employ them till the evening boat should start.

Their spirits were low, for the terrible spell of the great heat brooded
upon them. All abroad burned the fierce white light of the sun, in
which not only the earth seemed to parch and thirst, but the very air
withered, and was faint and thin to the troubled respiration. Their
train was full of people who had come long journeys from broiling ci