ugust, Maude and I spent a fortnight at the
sea. There could be no doubt as to my mother's happiness, as to her
approval of Maude; they loved each other from the beginning. I can
picture them now, sitting together with their sewing on the porch of the
cottage at Mattapoisett. Out on the bay little white-caps danced in the
sunlight, sail-boats tacked hither and thither, the strong cape breeze,
laden with invigorating salt, stirred Maude's hair, and occasionally
played havoc with my papers.

"She is just the wife for you, Hugh," my mother confided to me. "If I had
chosen her myself I could not have done better," she added, with a smile.

I was inclined to believe it, but Maude would have none of this illusion.

"He just stumbled across me," she insisted....

We went on long sails together, towards Wood's Hole and the open sea, the
sprays washing over us. Her cheeks grew tanned.... Sometimes, when I
praised her and spoke confidently of our future, she wore a troubled
expression.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked her once.

"You mustn't put me on a pedestal," she said gently. "I want you to see
me as I am--I don't want you to wake up some day and be disappointed.
I'll have to learn a lot of things, and you'll have to teach me. I can't
get used to the fact that you, who are so practical and successful in
business, should be such a dreamer where I am concerned."

I laughed, and told her, comfortably, that she was talking nonsense.

"What did you think of me, when you first knew me?" I inquired.

"Well," she answered, with the courage that characterized her, "I thought
you were rather calculating, that you put too high a price on success. Of
course you attracted me. I own it."

"You hid your opinions rather well," I retorted, somewhat discomfited.

She flushed.

"Have you changed them?" I demanded.

"I think you have that side, and I think it a weak side, Hugh. It's hard
to tell you this, but it's better to say so now, since you ask me. I do
think you set too high a value on success.'

"Well, now that I know what success really is, perhaps I shall reform," I
told her.

"I don't like to think that you fool yourself," she replied, with a
perspicacity I should have found extraordinary.

Throughout my life there have been days and incidents, some trivial, some
important, that linger in my memory because they are saturated with
"atmosphere." I recall, for instance, a gala occasion in youth when my
mother ga