"Do the best you can, dear," she ended. "And everything--all the entertaining here and the going out--must be kept up just the same as if I was being dragged about down stairs instead of lying up here resting." She insisted on this, and would not be content until she had my promise. "And don't forget to cheer pa and Cyrus up. I never was sick before--not a day. That's why they take on so." I think I have been succeeding in cheering them up. And everything is going forward as before--except, of course, that we've cut out every engagement we possibly could. It's amazing how many friends "ma" Burke has made in such a short time. Ever since the news of her illness got out, the front door has been opening and shutting all day long. And those of the callers that I've seen have shown a real interest. This has made me have a better opinion of human nature than I had thought I could have. I suppose half the seeming heartlessness in this world is suspicion and a sort of miserly dread lest one should give kindly feeling without getting any of it in return. But "ma" Burke, who never bothers her head for an instant about whether people like her, and gets all her pleasure out of liking them, makes friends by the score. I'm in a queer state of mind about Cyrus. March 3. "Ma" Burke was brought down to the drawing-room for tea to-day. She held a regular levee. Those that came early spread it round, and by six o'clock they were pouring in. She looked extremely well, and gloriously happy. All she had needed was complete rest and sleep--and less to eat. "After this," she said, "I'm not going to eat more than four or five meals a day. At my age a woman can't stand the strain of ten and twelve--my record was sixteen--counting two teas as one meal." For an hour there was hilarious chattering in English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and mixtures of all five. I think the thing that most fascinates Mrs. Burke about Washington is the many languages spoken. She looks at me in an awed way when I trot out my three in quick succession. And she regards the women as superhuman who speak so many languages so fluently that they drift from one to the other without being quite sure what they're speaking. There certainly were enough going on at once to-day, and a good many of the women smoked. But to return to Mrs. Burke. When only a few of those we know best were left this afternoon, and Nadeshda was smoking, Jessie, who is always so tactful, said to Robert: "I'm glad to see that you don't object to Nadeshda's smoking." Mrs. Burke laughed. "Why should he?" said she. "Why, when we were children ma and pa used to sit on opposite sides of the chimney, smoking their pipes. And ma dipped, too, when it wasn't convenient for her to have her pipe." "Do _you_ smoke, Mrs. Burke?" asked Jessie, with wide, serious eyes. "I never saw you." "No, I don't," she confessed. "Tom used to hate the smell of it, so I never got into the habit."