Mrs. Advanca was the first to recover herself. "There is nothing so amazing in that, after all. I don't know why we should all be so surprised. Love is the great thing, and if Miss Sharp has found that greatest expression of oneself she is to be congratulated," and her eyes grew quite limpid with sympathy.

Mrs. Broad threw her a grateful smile. She felt kindly toward the widow who seemed to be referring to her own happy past.

Miss Young looked with renewed interest at Miss Sharp. Her expression was not unmixed with sympathy, for she, too, had learned what love was. She leaned her elbows on the table and said: "Do tell us his name so long as you have told us so much."

"Yes," joined in Mrs. Culture with a smile slightly tinged with condescension. "Yes, do tell us his name so that we may wish you happiness," and she raised her wine glass with a glance including all.

66

Professor Jewell."

The wine glass slipped from Mrs. Culture's hand and shattered upon the table. She started from her seat, her face flushed and excited.

"Why! what is the matter?" Miss Young and Miss Sharp exclaimed, starting from their seats. The rest remained silent with surprise.

"I am going to ask to be excused; I don't feel that I can stay. I'm not feeling well," and she pushed back her chair and started for the door, Mrs. Broad following her anxiously.

Miss Sharp had been watching her very intensely, and before she reached the door she spoke in a low, tense voice: "Mrs. Culture, do you know Professor Jewell?"

Mrs. Culture faced around slowly and looked at Miss Sharp a moment without speaking. Then shrugging her shoulders she said, "I don't think I do. He was my husband." Then she passed out of the room.

A brief and uncomfortable silence followed which was broken by Miss Young who laughed hysterically and said, "Won't the claret stain the cloth badly?"

Mrs. Head mechanically replied to the unanswered and irrevelant question. "Yes, nothing stains worse than claret.

The table cloth is practically ruined, and it is a beautiful one specially woven for Mrs. Broad."

"Oh, this is ghastly!" exclaimed Miss Sharp, her face still scarlet from the surprise of Mrs. Culture's announcement. "Why didn't some one tell me that she was divorced?"

"Well, it's fairly safe to suppose that one woman out of eight may be divorced in this country-but even then what good would it have done? That wouldn't have saved the situation as we never knew of your engagement. It is well known here that Mrs. Culture was divorced years ago and took her maiden name. This sounds hard, but this is what we promised to say what we thought. But don't you mind."

"But I do mind! This spoils the luncheon and my remaining will make it as awkward for me as it is for Mrs. Broad, so I'll slip out and tell Mrs. Broad. You wouldn't ask me to remain, any you, would you?" she said, with a forlorn little smile as she pushed back her chair and rose.

of

They all shook their heads sympathetically and she went into the hall where they heard the returning footsteps of Mrs. Broad.

"What a pity," soliloquized Miss Bright, playing with Mrs. Culture's hatchet, which the butler had pushed aside while he covered the wine stain with an exquisitely embroidered doily. "Mrs. Broad's idea was so original and clever! It seems such a pity it is spoiled!'

"It isn't spoiled," broke in Mrs. Head, emphatically, pushing her chair farther to her left as they had all moved their chairs around a bit to fill up the vacant places left by Mrs. Culture and Miss Sharp. "It must not be spoiled. Of course that was a very awkward situation, one that wouldn't happen again in a life-time. You see Mrs. Culture's divorce is too old a story to be the subject of discussion. It was simply a case of being married too young. Now we must prove to Mrs. Broad that the rest of us are equal to her idea."

When the hostess returned, slightly flushed and with an expression of comic despair on her face, the butler was serving the salad.

"Oh, I don't know," she said as she looked around at her remaining guests. "I am afraid this is a dismal failure. Here we are only at the salad and our party has shrunk to six. I never dreamed that such a thing could occur. I will say though that they didn't balk when it came to telling the truth even if they couldn't stand for it. But it seemed strange that unexpected truths should so upset one, I doubt if I should be so unprepared. But I am sorry this occurred before Miss Young. She hasn't become disillusioned yet," and Mrs. Broad leaned forward and patted her hand.

A pretty flush suffused the girl's face and she smiled happily at Mrs. Broad.

"I think it is very dangerous, Mrs. Broad, to have this young person stay with you when that young scamp son of yours is about," warned Mrs. Head in a way she meant to be playful.

Mrs. Broad beamed upon Miss Young. "I think it just as dangerous for himeh, girlie? Oh, I can be perfectly sure of him. He is a good boy-too young to marry yet. He is only twenty-one.'

Miss Candor and Miss Bright exchanged significant glances.

The widow lifted a pair of retrospective eyes to encounter the intent gaze of Mrs. Head. "Are your thoughts worth a penny?" the widow asked, reaching for an almond.

"I was wondering if it was Mrs. Broad's son that I saw you with last night at the theatre. I sat so far behind you, that I couldn't be sure.'

The widow looked at the openmouthed Miss Young and said nonchalantly: "It was he,- -we often go to the theatre together. I am as old as mother."

"Oh yes, Mrs. Advanca is very good to my boy," and Mrs. Broad's eyes were wells of gratitude.

"Aren't you afraid of making some one jealous?" grinned the good-natured Miss Candor.

"Jealous? Why, what do you mean?" "You're hedging, you're hedging and what's more you're blushing, too," and Miss Candor blundered joyously on.

"What do you mean by this, Miss Candor?"

Suddenly sobered, Miss Candor said.

The boy was forgotten in the excitement that followed this announcement. Two romances unearthed at one sitting and the coffee just in sight! No wonder they beat their hatchets upon the table in anticipation of the announcement for the widow had been very discreet, and her name had been singularly free from gossip, considering that she was wealthy and handsome.

"How did you hear that?" asked the widow with unmistakable annoyance.

Miss Bright's younger brother is interested in a girl who lives opposite you, and he sees him call upon you.”

"Perhaps he thinks he knows who he

is."

"He does.'

"Who does he think it is?"

Miss Candor glanced at her hostess. She sat with her elbow on the table, her chin in her hand, trying hard not to show how she enjoyed the widow's confusion.

The butler had just served the coffee and had withdrawn.

Then Miss Candor turned to Mrs. Advanca. "He doesn't think. He knows. It is Harold Broad."

"What!" If the word wasn't a scream it was a bud from the same stalk, and Mrs. Broad's dimpled elbow slipped, knocking the finger bowl to the floor where it lay in fragments, unnoticed.

to

"What!" she repeated: "You engaged my son! My boy! It is the most outrageous thing I ever heard! It's not true. I shall never speak-"

In the excess of her rage she burst into tears and promptly passed into hysterics, while Miss Young took this opportunity to fall back into her chair in a dead faint.

When Miss Young recovered consciousness she found herself in her own room in Mrs. Broad's house with the maid in attendance. When she finally recalled all that had happened during the previous hour and a half, she went down stairs to find her hostess.

Mrs. Broad was lying on the couch in her own den. Her eyes were quite red from much weeping, and on the floor

I

WAS twelve years old at the time my father became the occupant of a farm in the Granite State and that winter, in the district school, in the thin quarto, Morse's Geography, I read that New Hampshire was called The Switzerland of America.

That was nearly sixty years ago. the time that has intervened I have learned to know the features of New Hampshire; its hills and mountains, its streams and lakes, its flora and fauna, the characteristics of its people and the resources they have at command. Maybe I have known them better because I have been mainly a dweller in other States and, to some extent, a traveler in other lands; for through all the time I have been more than a frequent visitor to the granite hills which I learned to love with a love that knows no ceasing. Maybe the present is the only year-if there are other exceptions they are few-out of the nearly three score, that has not had some portion of it spent in the region of which I had early become so fond; but of the real Switzerland I saw nothing, although more than once I visited the countries on

every side of it. I was determined not to visit Switzerland until a time might come when there should be leisure enough to look at it without hurry and to digest its scenes and attractions without the necessity of moving on before being ready to do so. That time never came, but in the year 1907 there was a nearer approach to it than I am destined to again be allowed.

Of many tourists in Switzerland I have asked, "In what respect is Switzerland like New Hampshire?" and by those most competent to express an opinion I have been answered "In no respect," and yet it continues to be called the Switzerland of America. "You should

be there in June," said one, “because then the waterfalls are full and the Alpine flowers in the greatest profusion. Earlier than June was not advisable, for the passes would not be passable nor the hotels open for the reception of visitors. Although determined to take this advice no stress had been laid upon what part of June should be chosen, and other attractions so delayed progress that not only did the entire month slip by before Switzerland was reached but so too had the whole of July. August and September however were still available, and what I saw was observed during those two months spliced out by a portion of the first week in October.

If one should take the map of New Hampshire and Vermont, as they are in the atlas commonly pictured, side by side, and, with the scissors, should round off the corners and scallop the edges somewhat, thereby removing about one-fifth of the surface, the part that remained would represent the area of Switzerland with considerable approach to accuracy. Its situation is in the heart of Europe, Italy to the south of it, Austria at the east, France at the west and Germany north. Should we attempt to illustrate its comparative position and area by reference to a map of the United States it would be found to compare pretty closely, both as to space and position, with that portion of Texas commonly denominated "The Pan Handle.

Though of area not nearly twice as great as New Hampshire, it has well on to ten times as many people. Taking cities and towns together, with waste places and forests, New Hampshire has forty inhabitants to the square mile and Switzerland two hundred, consequently the probability of seeing human beings around one is increased in that proportion. One