Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/86

 "Dear Anson—

"Mother has asked me to go on a little journey with her, and as you are so well taken care of I thought it was a good time to go. I write this so that you need not come way up to mother's for nothing. I hope you like your new housekeeper and that you are enjoying all 'the comforts of a home.'

'Your affectionate wife.

"Emmeline."

Then there was a short postscript written in a less careful hand:

"Don't forget me, Anson—and kiss the boys for me."

Anson did not forget her, though he tried his best to take her desertion philosophically. The evening after Emmeline went away, for instance, he had resort to his favorite occupation of sawing wood, and he sawed himself, so to speak, into a very sensible frame of mind. But when he came and into the front of the house, he stopped mechanically and listened. He could almost hear Emmeline's voice singing:

Almost, but not quite. As he stood with his hand on the stair railing, his heart sank at the stillness of the house, and then, lifting his hand, he involuntarily looked to see if there was any mark on it. Singularly enough he experienced