n a supply of jam for breakfast, and had implored me to
serve cold meats and joints and things as the English do, and to please
her I had promised. But that first night at dinner Lady Mary turned to
me and said, with a sweetness and grace not to be reproduced:

"Mrs. Jardine, I have come over here to live among you and to be as
little unlike you Americans as possible. I cannot forget that it was
the American dollar that made it possible for Wemyss to gain poor dear
mamma's consent to our marriage, and I am correspondingly grateful.
Now, won't you do me a favour? Won't you please leave off doing
anything for us in the English manner, because of your desire to please
us, and mayn't I see in your house just how Americans live.
Particularly your breakfasts. I have heard that they were so
jolly--not a bit like ours, and I am keen to taste your hot breads!
Fancy! I never saw any in my life."

I fairly gasped with delight, and as for the maids, I was afraid they
were going to kiss Lady Mary. It removed an awful strain.

"Certainly," I beamed. "I will do anything I can for you."

"If she does," declared Jimmie, "there won't be a queer American thing
for you to learn after you leave Peach Orchard. You'll have seen 'em
all."

"That is what I should like," said Lady Mary, in her deep, beautiful
voice. "And Wemyss would, too."

Sir Wemyss, who spoke but seldom, here removed his cigar, for we had
gone into the billiard-room after dinner, and said:

"Jardine, you don't know how a little place like this appeals to me.
Now our places in England are all so large that they take an army of
servants to run them, and the gardening and all that are done by one's
men. But here with only yourselves you can do so much. You can feed
your own chickens, you can prune your own trees, you can do such a lot
yourselves. I should think it would be great fun."

We were much flattered by this view of it, and Mrs. Jimmie and Bee were
plainly impressed.

"My sister is very fond of her life here," declared Bee. "I found
Peach Orchard a perfect pastoral when I first came."

Jimmie had been smoking thoughtfully, with a frown of perplexity on his
brow. Suddenly he spoke.

"I think Sir Wemyss is right," he answered. "Now, why not all of us
take a hand at farming, so to speak, while we are here? I never have,
but I know I could. Anyhow I mean to try. To-morrow, let's go at it
and prune the trees."

"It is not the proper season to