Three generations

92 A YOUNG COUPLE
over the stories. But my mother's reading days were
over for the present, since duty came between. She
had her young children, her husband, and her house
to attend to, and what a duty and pleasure all three
were to her ! What a ceaselessly busy woman she
was in the middle of the incessant round of friendly
visiting and simple gaiety !
It was not as in the old Balass days, when more or
less roughness and rusticity were permissible amidst
the bounty of a hospitable farmhouse. She had be-
come one of the Cupar ladies, the wife of a gentleman
who had passed his examinations as a notary, and was
partner in a business firm :
" She will order all things duly,
He shall have a pleasant home."
And his credit demanded much more than was re-
quired in a homely, crowded farmhouse, one which
adverse fortunes soon darkened down. Progress was
the order of the day in furniture and dress, even that
of the children. Mahogany and rosewood had taken
the place of deal and birchwood, Brussels carpets
of druggets, ivory instead of horn for the handles
of knives. Solid silver was no longer confined to
spoons and prize cups. There was cut crystal for
water-jugs, etc. What pride the mistress of the house
had in what were then regarded as testing tokens of
substance and refinement befitting a prosperous pro-
fessional man whose culture was that of a gentleman !
To crown all, my mother would not have been her
father and mother's daughter if she had not kept
a margin, inevitably small, but still a margin, to which
she could turn in order to supply substantial kindness
and consideration to those dependent on her, and help
to the very poor.