E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) THE HOUSE OF MARTHA by FRANK R. STOCKTON Boston and New York Houghton, Mifflin and Company The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1891 Copyright, 1891, By Frank B. Stockton. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. My Grandmother and I II. Relating to my Year in Europe III. The Modern Use of the Human Ear IV. I obtain a Listener V. Chester Walkirk VI. My Under-Study VII. My Book VIII. The Malarial Adjunct IX. Walkirk's Idea X. The Plan of Seclusion XI. My Nun XII. Eza XIII. My Friend Vespa XIV. I favor Permanency in Office XV. How we went back to Genoa XVI. I run upon a Sandbar XVII. Regarding the Elucidation of National Characteristics XVIII. An Illegible Word XIX. Gray Ice XX. Tomaso and I XXI. Lucilla and I XXII. I close my Book XXIII. Racket Island XXIV. The Interpolation XXV. About Sylvia XXVI. Mother Anastasia XXVII. A Person XXVIII. The Floating Grocery XXIX. Fantasy? XXX. A Discovery XXXI. Taking up Unfinished Work XXXII. Tomaso and Lucilla XXXIII. The Distant Topsail XXXIV. The Central Hotel XXXV. Money makes the Mare go XXXVI. In the Shade of the Oak XXXVII. The Performance of my Under-Study XXXVIII. A Broken Trace XXXIX. A Soul Whisper? XL. An Inspiration XLI. Miss Laniston XLII. The Mother Superior XLIII. Was his Heart true to Poll? XLIV. Preliminary Brotherhood XLV. I make Coffee and get into Hot Water XLVI. Going back for a Friend XLVII. I interest Miss Laniston XLVIII. In a Cold, Bare Room XLIX. My Own Way L. My Book of Travel LI. A Loose End LII. I finish the Sicilian Love-Story THE HOUSE OF MARTHA. I. MY GRANDMOTHER AND I. My grandmother sat in her own particular easy-chair by the open window of her back parlor. This was a pleasant place in which to sit in the afternoon, for the sun was then on the other side of the house, and she could look not only over the smooth grass of the side yard and the flower beds, which were under her especial care, but across the corner of the front lawn into the village street. Here, between two handsome maple-trees which stood upon the sidewalk, she could see something of what was going on in the outer world without presenting the appearance of one who is fond of watching her neighbors. It was not much that she saw, for the street was a quiet one; but a very little of that sort of thing satisfied her.