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Show JEAN INGELOW'S HOME. The popular poet and novelist lives at Kensington, near London. Her home, her appearance and manner of entertaining her guests are thus described. Entering the house the guests are shown into a large, cheerful room on the left of the hall, where, in a broad window, was spread the usual afternoon tea-table. Two rosy-cheeked maids, in white caps and aprons, served the incoming friends, who, having taken their cup of tea standing, repaired at once to the drawing-room on the opposite side of the hall. A long, pretty room it was, filled with dainty womanish belongings. In a smaller room at the end, which looked into a conservatory at one side and the garden in the rear, beside an Oriental divan, stood Miss Ingelow, a small, slight woman, of, perhaps, forty years, with a pleasant manner and a quiet, somewhat timid smile. Her eyes were bright and expressive; her hair, tinged with gray, was drawn smoothly from her forehead, under a head-dress of muslin and lace. Her dress was of black silk trimmed with crepe. Altogether, she looked a model of a quiet English lady in a pleasant English home. As the rooms slowly filled, numbers of guests passed out through the open doors on to the balcony in the rear. A broad carpet of the greenest lawn was bordered by narrow side paths, one of which led into a right-angled continuation of the garden beyond. Flowering trees, with benches beneath their shade, were stationed along these paths. People were walking up and down, or seated under the trees, their light, bright dresses or somber masculine attire contrasting with the vivid green of foliage and grass, eating pick ices-the offering of a neat-handed Phyllis-and gossiping in a friendly way. Every face wore a smile, and the spirit of the day and of June seemed to animate every guest. Re-entering the house, the hostess was found still at her post, a touch of weariness visible in her attitude and smile. But the tone and manner in which she had made her guests welcome were no more hospitably cordial than those with which she bade them "come again." |