She had never thought of matrimony without a community of feeling in regard to religion and country; one took those great conditions for granted just as one assumed that one’s food was to be cooked; and if Jackson should have to discuss them with his wife he might, in spite of his great abilities, be carried into regions where he would get entangled and embroiled—from which even possibly he wouldn’t come back at all. Mrs. Lemon had a horror of losing him in some way, and this fear was in her eyes as she stood by the doorway of her house and, after she had glanced up and down the street, eyed him a moment in silence. He simply kissed her again and said she would take cold. “I’m not afraid of that—I’ve a shawl!” Mrs. Lemon, who was very small and very fair, with pointed features and an elaborate cap, passed her life in a shawl, and owed to this habit her reputation for being an invalid—an idea she scorned, naturally enough, inasmuch as it was precisely her shawl that, as she believed, kept every ill at bay. “Is it true Barbarina won’t come back?” she then asked. “I don’t know that we shall ever find out; I don’t know that I shall take her to England,” Jackson distinctly returned. She looked more anxious still. “Didn’t you promise, dear?” “I don’t know that I promised—not absolutely.” “But you wouldn’t keep her here against her will?” quavered Mrs. Lemon. “I guess she’ll get used to it,” he returned with a levity that misrepresented the state of his nerves. Mrs. Lemon looked up and down the street again and gave a little sigh. “What a pity she isn’t American!” She didn’t mean this as a reproach, a hint of what might have been; it was simply embarrassment resolved into speech. “She couldn’t have been American,” said Jackson with decision. “Couldn’t she, dear?” His mother spoke with conscientious respect; she felt there were imperceptible reasons in this. “It was just as she is that I wanted her,” Jackson added. “Even if she won’t come back?” Mrs. Lemon went on with wonder. “Oh she has got to come back!” Jackson said as he went down the steps. VI