"What do you mean ?" "It seems to have been prompted by a hint you let drop, which Tom has passed to Bella and Fulkerson." "Oh, but that was before we left Carlsbad!" she protested, while she devoured the letters with her eyes, and continued to denounce the absurdity of the writers.

Her son and daughter both urged that now their father and mother were over there, they had better stay as long as they enjoyed it, and that they certainly ought not to come home without going to Italy, where they had first met, and revisiting the places which they had seen together when they were young engaged people: without that their silver wedding journey would not be complete.

Her son said that everything was going well with 'Every Other Week', and both himself and Mr.Fulkerson thought his father ought to spend the winter in Italy, and get a thorough rest.

"Make a job of it, March," Fulkerson wrote, "and have a Sabbatical year while you're at it.

You may not get another." "Well, I can tell them," said Mrs.March indignantly, "we shall not do anything of the kind." "Then you didn't mean it ?" "Mean it!" She stopped herself with a look at her husband, and asked gently, "Do you want to stay ?" "Well, I don't know," he answered vaguely.