looking forward to it and to your first impressions every evening he wanted to take my hastily notes and read them and after doing so was anxious to have me do them all just that way that is day by day as i experienced them i found that quite impossible however once he wanted to know if i had any special preference in or and i knew very well why he asked another time he overheard me make the statement that i had always longed to eat rich cheese from germany done he exclaimed we shall have it for christmas but papa up we don t all have to have it at the same time do we no my dear replied solemnly with that and parental air which always me a sort of gay always lurking behind it a christmas call only mr need have it he is german and likes it i assumed as german a look as i might � profound and i believe you like mr jones s he observed on another occasion referring to an american which he had heard me say in new york that i liked we shall have some of those are american like english inquired young charles now heaven only knows i replied i have never eaten english ask your father merely smiled i think not he replied christmas is certainly looking up i said to him if i come out of here alive � in condition for paris and the � i shall be grateful he beamed on me well finally to make a long story short the day came or at least the day before we were all assembled for a joyous christmas eve � t sir the dearest aunt and the charming cousin extremely intelligent and artistic women both the four children s very clever and appealing secretary and myself there was a delightful dinner spread at when we all assembled to discuss the prospects of the morrow it was on the as i discovered that i should arise and accompany his aunt his cousin and the children to a abbey church a lovely affair i was told on the bank of the thames hard by the old english town called while who positively refused to have anything to do with religion of any kind quality or description was to go and a certain neighboring household of which more anon and to take young james he of the for a fine and long anticipated ride on his mo a at forty tor lord and t were to remain behind to discuss art perhaps or literature being late if there was to be any which the children doubted owing to s rather grave to the contrary there having been a number of reasons why a severely righteous might see fit to remain away he was not to make his appearance until rather late in the afternoon meanwhile we had all to the general living room where a heavy coal fire blazed on the hearth for once and candles were lighted in profusion the children sang songs of the north accompanied by their i can see their quaint faces now gathered about the piano lord and myself indulged in various artistic and mrs the aunt told me the brilliant story of her husband s life � a great philosopher and � and finally after coffee nuts and much music and songs � some comic ones by � we retired for the night it is necessary to prepare the reader properly for the morrow to go back a few days or weeks possibly and tell of a sentimental encounter that me one day as i was going for a walk in that green world which level it was a most delightful spectacle along the road before me with its border of green grass and green though trees there was approaching a most interesting figure of a woman a dashing bit of � at once the presumption owing to various accompanying details was mine wife mother � as charming a bit of womanhood and english family sweetness as i had yet seen in england english women by and large let me state here are not smart at least those that i encountered but here was one dressed after the french fashion in close fitting blue her form perfectly a little a christmas call r cap of snowy whiteness set over her ear her smooth black hair parted over her forehead a white warming her hands and white the trim leather of her foot gear her eyes were dark brown her cheeks rosy her gait smart and tense i could scarcely believe she was the mother of the three year old in white and red wool a little girl who was sitting a white donkey which in turn was led by a trim maid or nurse or in brown � but it was quite plain that she was there was such a wise sober look about all this such a that i was enchanted it was such a delightful picture to encounter of a clear december morning that in the fashion of the english i exclaimed my word i this is something i went back to the house that afternoon determined to make inquiries perhaps she was a neighbor � a friend of the family of all the individuals who have an appropriate and superior taste for the smart efforts of the fair sex commend me to his interest and enthusiasm neither flags nor fails being a of discretion he knows exactly what is smart for a woman as well as a man and all you have to do to make him up his ears attentively is to mention beauty as existing in some form somewhere � not too distant for his what s this i see his eye lighting beauty a lovely woman when where this day finding in the garden some bushes i had said do you know any family that keeps 