ully train creepers against the
walls or flowers in the dooryard, because of the goat, pig, donkey,
ducks, hens, and chickens; and Veritas asks triumphantly, "Why don't you
keep the pig in a sty, then?"

The man with the evergreen heart (who has already been told this morning
that I am happily married, Francesca engaged, Salemina a determined
celibate, but Benella quite at liberty) peeps under Salemina's umbrella
at this juncture, and says tenderly, "And what do you think about these
vexed questions, dear madam?" Which gives her a chance to reply with
some distinctness, "I shall not know what I think for several months to
come; and at any rate there are various things more needed on this coach
than opinions."

At this the Frenchman murmurs, "Ah, she has right!" and the Birmingham
cutler says, "'Ear! 'ear!"

On another day the parson began to tell the man with the evergreen heart
some interesting things about America. He had never been there himself,
but he had a cousin who had travelled extensively in that country,
and had brought back much unusual information. "The Americans are an
extraordinary people on the practical side," he remarked; "but having
said that, you have said all, for they are sordid, and absolutely devoid
of ideality. Take an American at his roller-top desk, a telephone at one
side and a typewriter at the other, talk to him of pork and dollars,
and you have him at his very best. He always keeps on his Panama hat at
business, and sits in a rocking-chair smoking a long cigar. The American
woman wears a blue dress with a red lining, or a black dress with orange
trimmings, showing a survival of African taste; while another exhibits
the American-Indian type,--sallow, with high cheekbones. The manners of
the servant classes are extraordinary. I believe they are called 'the
help,' and they commonly sit in the drawing-room after the work is
finished."

"You surprise me!" said Mrs. Shamrock.

"It is indeed amazing," he continued; "and there are other extraordinary
customs, among them the habit of mixing ices with all beverages. They
plunge ices into mugs of ale, beer, porter, lemonade, or Apollinaris,
and sip the mixture with a long ladle at the chemist's counter, where it
is usually served."

"You surprise me!" exclaimed the cutler.

"You surprise me too!" I echoed in my inmost heart. Francesca would not
have confined herself to that blameless mode of expression, you may be
sure, and I was glad that s