The Front Yard

the hotel at Salerno. She had therefore tak

e, year after year, in the hope that the constant seeing of so many straight statues, to say nothing of pictures, may at last teach them to have spines. Here they are now; did you ever see such shoulders, or rather such a lack of them? Hildegarde, child, come here a moment," she added, as the thre

n to blush painfully, until her milk-white face was dyed red. "I am afr

rs. Preston, despairingly. "Go and dance for twenty-five minut

same lank figures with sloping shoulders and long thin throats, and the same curiously white, milk-white skin. Orphans, they had been sent with th

rst took charge of them," Mrs. Preston was accustomed to remark to intimate friends; "yet look at them now! Of course

ston was not

for a few words upon another subject. "Do you like to have Paulie riding so

d but you, Isabella, would dream of doing it-a great sw

how can you think so? Raphael-such a religious

h is one of the most dissipated-looking youths I have ever met," pu

mind Paulie's b

dow; it ill becomes those who have not had a tithe of her experience (thou

est sentences, therefore, often took on the tone of declamation, an

h for dear Paulie in case she should be thinking of marrying again. Even if one were sure of John Ash-and certain

s becoming Mrs. John Ash might endan

y. She was fifty, small, plain, extremely good. In her heart she wished

said Mrs. Preston, as a figure

o ride again!" But it was evident that Mrs.

ing in the doorway with her skirt uplifted. Her graceful fig

enjoy going very much if I

as you are," responde

with heavy black eyebrows, and well-cut aquiline profile. Her straight back, noble

a question of styles conversational. Here is Isabella, who thinks John Ash so dissipated, Pauline; she fears that it may injure the family connection if you marry him. I have told her th

y am not thinking of marriage," said Paul

set Pauline against me!" exc

ledge; but she's not against any one. Pauline bears no malice; she is delightfully uncertain; she hasn't a theory in the worl

a linen band with an implement of ivory,

e's friend than you ever can be. Did I say that she lied? Nature has given her a face that speaks one language and a mind that speaks anoth

evidently mounting the stairs three at a time: now he was in the room. "They're all do

nevolently, as the lad, with a very pr

rom Paris for only three weeks, and he says he will go with us to P?stum, and all

ner," repeated Aunt Octavia, as i

ey come up?" A

s also an architect, but a full-fledged one. His indomitable perseverance and painstaking accuracy caused all the younger men to respect him; the American students went further; they were sure that Griff had only to "let himself go," and the United States would bloom from end to end with City Halls of beau

eight, his figure heavy and strong; he had a dark complexion and thick feature

e the horde considered him the architect of the future. Aunt Octavia did not care much about the future; her tests were thos