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 atmosphere! Does it not appear to you, sir, that the atmosphere is heavy?” Or else at picnics or outings while the sound of music filled the air and all around were cheerful and gay, she conventionally uttered her admiration thus: “How beautiful all this is! I love music, and especially do I love to listen to the notes of a flute!” And all the time she was studying the words she would be called upon to utter next, in order that they should be both proper and agreeable. She would bow, extend the fingers of her hand in greeting, sit very severely upright in her chair and thank in a very cold manner all gentlemen who were of an uncertain or unprofessional occupation, as her code did not admit those without means to her favored circle.

Ah, well! The golden band shines on her finger now, and with it all the past is banished, the present solved and the future ordained.

“Well, then, lentils it shall be today.” Lentils are certainly not rare, but they will cause a change in the entire atmosphere of her clean, shiny household. As soon as he reaches the steps her husband will be met with the fragrance from the kitchen and will know that she is cooking lentils for his dinner.

At the thought of her husband she felt a tiny wave of trouble in her soul. It seemed to her that she ought to have something new to say to him, something kind and affable, but she explained this desire as a consequence of the habit she had been trained in of always making an effort to be pleasant to him.