things."

"You don't, indeed!"

"No."

"Don't you ever expect to keep a carriage?"

"I do not."

"I am sure you will."

"You labour under a mistake, Ellen. I have no such intention."

"If I wish for one, I am sure you will gratify me." Mrs. Tompkins
spoke softly and smiled.

"No--not even to gratify you, Ellen." Mr. Tompkins spoke seriously,
and his brow contracted.

"You built this beautiful house to gratify me."

"True--and by doing so have set myself half crazy."

"Mr. Tompkins, I don't understand you. You are in a strange mood
this evening."

"And so would you be in a strange mood, if you had suffered as much
as I have during the day."

"Suffered! What have you suffered about?"

"Because I built this house."

"You speak in riddles. Why do you not explain yourself?" Mrs.
Tompkins's voice trembled, and there were tears in her eyes.

"Iplace here. I wish
you would remove it. Oh, dear, dear! And that toilette-glass--straighten
it, if you please. I can't bear any thing crooked. And there's Mary's
rigolette on the bureau; the careless child! She never puts any thing
away."

These little annoyances were removed, and the invalid was quiet
again--externally quiet, but within all was fretfulness and mental
pain.

"There come the children from school," she said, as the ringing of
the door-bell and gay voices were heard below. "You must keep them
from my room. I feel unusually nervous to-day, and my head aches
badly."

Yet, even while she spoke, two little girls came bounding into the
room, crying--

"Oh, mother! Dear mother! We've got something good to tell you. Miss
Martin says we've been two of the best"----

The attendant's imperative "H-u-s-h!" and the mother's hand waving
toward the door, the motion