Sink or Swim? , Volume I

It was, as I before said, the day previous to that appointed for the wedding, and Mrs. Beacham, feeling slightly bemuddled and restless, and being withal half, and only half, reconciled to her son's marriage, was passing a quiet hour in the large old-fashioned kitchen-garden, which had formed for the best part of half a century her glory and her pride.

In the days before John's engagement to Honor Blake, and when the mother and son together ruled the household in harmony, and with a prudent yet not illiberal hand, Mrs. Beacham had been remarkable for a quiet cheerfulness of disposition and -- making allowance for occasional outbreaks -- for a kindly temper. The world had hitherto gone well with her, and she -- in common gratitude bound -- had gone well with the world. What wonder was it, then, that Updown Paddocks, with its cheery, hospitable mistress, and with "young John," so pleasant as he was, and open-handed, came to be well appreciated as a "good house," to use a rustic but expressive phrase, throughout the whole country side?