Part 4 (1/2)

I would learn table lish lady of aristocratic birth and social experience; but when it caift to a faithful servant, I declared my American independence

I was homesick for Wisconsin, hoo hoht Tom and I had our first real quarrel, and it was over my dismissal of the Scotch lady of aristocratic birth

Life becah days of bitter ho seee Everybody seeuttural voices Even my husband's voice sounded different--or else I realized for the first tilish Toue in Boston, and now suddenly he seener to ners

The sun went out of my heaven I was dumb with loneliness and sick with the fear of lost faith Could it be that lish land, while I seemed to be adrift, alone in an arctic ocean

I had no friend in England, andhiue-tied He had tried to be gentle with e in this world of his, and lonely and sensitive I had dreamed so much of this world, and now that I was in it, it was false and petty I longed for the United States, for my Northwest, for my hills and wide, far plains I wanted to meet somebody from Madison who sly, and said I must be ill

I confessed to a little hohtseeing We lunched at the quaint inn where dickens found his inspiration for ”Pickwick Papers” and where the literary lights of London foregathered and still foregather for luncheon We sat in one of the cozy little stalls--just Toone all wrong Here was a dreahts

I told hi of mother in her cotton house dress with her knitted shawl around her shoulders, of father in his jeans and high boots tras and the chickens, the s to rub each other's face in the --To to his That was the second time I heard Toht he was He'd be as much at home with dad on the ranch as he was in London ”The fault is with you,” he said ”You 're not adaptable, and you don't try to be”

Toether, which he made so rich and happy, Tom never understood how hard and bitter a school was that first year of ood ti places and ere entertained by a nuest that we entertain in our turn I think he felt I was not ready for it, although even in after years, e talked frankly about s, he would never adet land I was not well, and Toe, a trip down to Essex and new people, would do ood sis and met Tom at Victoria Station at eleven o'clock Alas! It is a far cry froland! My vision of a quiet visit ”down on a farm” vanished the minute we stepped off the train Liveried coach souess that 's all

I 'll wire back for the rest of it”

We were led to a handsome cart drawn by a fine tandem team, and Tom and I were alone for a minute

”My God, Mary!” he burst out, ”didn't you bring any clothes for us?”

”I certainly have,” I retorted, sure I was in the right this tiown; your toilet articles and e of underclothes; a clean shi+rt and two collars for you, and et Toroaned ”To one of the grandest houses in England! Oh, Lord! I ought to have told you You 'll need all the clothes you have down here And--and a valet and s--oh, hell!” After an to cook up some yarn to tell the valet

Suddenly all that is free-born in entlemen to be afraid of the valet?” I asked ulate your life and set your standards?”

Tom was quiet for several moments; then he took my hand and said very earnestly: ”Mary, don't you ever lose your respect for the real things

It will save both of us” After a while he added: ”Just the sae hole”

He did, in a very casual, laughing way--such a positive set of lies that Iand how much was real

Tom went back to London on the next train, and reached the ”farht-o'clock dinner

The dinner was long and stupid After dinner the woossiped about politics and personalities until the men joined them, when they sat down to cards I did not kno to play cards, and so was left with a garrulous old woman who had eaten and drunk over- day for an to overpowerat the crystal lights, but my leaden eyes could not face the me to sleep I tried to say a feords now and then to wake