country a wet summer is a very nasty business meanwhile mrs frank notwithstanding elizabeth s held stoutly to the plan of spending the summer in frank protested on the score of expense and of the difficulty of taking two small children such a long journey but his wife having made up her mind he as usual ended by giving way so by the middle of august the frank found themselves established in one of those charming little towns that fringe the ch xii a sketch in black and white northern shores of the lake of with their rows of white houses had joined the party � he would really have been at a loss to state exactly why his feelings towards mrs frank were certainly not of an affectionate nature but he liked her husband too he felt deep down in his heart a sort of satisfaction in being with elizabeth s relations and in picking up stray bits of information about her from time to time a change had come over in the last few months he was more silent and s cheery and and he looked a good deal older he had been drawing hard lately and intelligent critics thought they perceived a new quality in his work it was less delicately pretty but stronger and with more meaning and of intention about it one or two people were good enough to concerning him that he would still make his mark when some acquaintance asked him one day how he had come suddenly to make such a distinct advance and improvement he shrugged his shoulders and answered with a laugh � oh you know this child too has been in hell the frank were very prosperous people things as a rule went easily and pleasantly with them but just at this period they seemed to get a run of bad luck the weather was almost as wet in the beautiful pays de as at home in england a daily thunder storm came to be reckoned as regularly included in the bill of fare the children were poorly mrs part ii and and as a very crown of trouble frank managed while doing a little to slip on some loose rock and his ankle it caused him acute pain at the time and obliged him to spend the best part of a month on the sofa swearing mildly at foreign countries in general and at countries in particular and declaring that he for his part should spend his next holiday at dine at one o clock and have every evening for tea let say what she liked on a certain monday afternoon while the daily thunder storm was backwards and forwards among the hills the were trying to amuse themselves as well as they could in their little it was a not very luxurious apartment � possessed of solid furniture and a of faded red velvet � on the second floor of the hotel but it had the charm of possessing also two great french windows opening on to a balcony which commanded a splendid view � when anything was to be seen frank was lying on the sofa grumbling gently to come abroad at considerable expense and then be laid up in this way was enough to turn even his amiable nature a little sour mrs frank was struggling to take a vital interest in a novel � concerning which she had a horrid suspicion that the third volume was lost � and alternately listening to hear if the baby sounded happy with his nurse in the next room and who bored and irritable at being kept so much ch xii a sketch in black and white indoors seemed to be meditating unspeakable upon the now no longer new with the pink hat stood lazily at the open window with his hands in his pockets and his back to the company watching the progress of the storm he had developed rather a habit of standing doing nothing but stare out of the window just lately the prospect was not a cheering one across the lake the mountains of and of the were behind heavy streaming masses of white mist down towards there was a lurid light in the sky and the swiftly moving clouds were twisted and into a thousand weird fantastic shapes the broad lake itself was a blue with long of livid gray where the sudden of wind swept across the angry surface of the water in the could see the waves dashing themselves against the stone wall on the other side of the while great drops of rain and on the broad leaves of the plane trees in the garden just below it was not an encouraging outlook certainly but perhaps was none the less in sympathy with it on that account there was a knock at the door of the cried mrs frank over her shoulder then turning to the little girl on the floor by her side she said � my dear child do have some sort of compassion on that unfortunate doll you ll break its mrs part ii head right off you know if you bang it down on the floor in that way looked up with a very little face at her mother and the doll s head down again on the bare floor i hate this she said she s so old i want to go out into the garden and play turned round as the door opened it was only a hurried and slightly distracted garden with a packet of english letters none for you said frank as he examined them slowly before proceeding to open them turned back to the window again good gracious cried frank all of a sudden why what s the matter asked his wife almost any event would have been a relief to her this afternoon she felt so bored elizabeth s ill down at said frank slowly running his eyes over the 