People of other countries, who have lived or stayed in England or have made English friends abroad, know nothing of this Mrs. Simpson; she is a product of the foreign railways and hotels, like the American whom we all know by sight and hearsay but who is unrecognised by his own countrymen. All the same, it was a long time before I could enjoy myself anywhere out of England without feeling the spell cast upon my spirit by the dreary, woebegone, helpless mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, who wandered away to their bedrooms in single file between meals, were always blocking up the bureau, asking questions about baths and the English services, and who stared at one another in the lifts, and talked in undertones at their little tables. There was one couple, in an hotel in Rome, who made conversation to each other for a week on what I judged from their faces to be such subjects as mausoleums, dentists, cold cream, and muffins. At last the husband said something really amusing--I heard it with great pleasure--to which his wife made a grimace and said: “Really, dear, you are quite beyond me altogether.” Henry--I remember that was his name--ought not to have stood it, but he did. He ought to have slapped her, and kicked over the table and left the room for ever. I should have rejoiced, more than I can say, on account of the blow that it would have given, in every town in Baedeker, to the continental Mrs. Simpson. I paid dearly for my rashness in leaving the shores of England. When I returned the sword had fallen. Mullins had been saving steadily during the past years, and Ruth had undertaken to marry him in the spring. Much as she disliked being interfered with, she disliked still more being left to herself; but whether marriage forms any solution to this dilemma, it will be for her to decide. I shall encourage the young Mullinses if there are any, remembering always that a wife and mother cannot give notice. PRINTED AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS LONDON A SELECTION FROM DUCKWORTH & CO.’S LIST OF PUBLICATIONS [Illustration] 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN LONDON, W.C. DUCKWORTH & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS ANIMAL LIFE AND WILD NATURE (STORIES OF). _Uniform binding, large cr. 8vo. 6s. net._ UNDER THE ROOF OF THE JUNGLE. A Book of Animal Life in the Guiana Wilds. Written and illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull. With 60 full-page plates drawn from Life by the Author. THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. By Charles G. D. Roberts, Professor of Literature, Toronto University, late Deputy-Keeper of Woods and Forests, Canada. With many illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A Book of Animal Life. By Charles G. D. Roberts. With 48 illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. THE STORY OF RED FOX. A Biography. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull.