We stood a moment in the autumn silence outside the hotel door, watching a maple across the street, the line of its boughs showing strong and black amid its airy yellow plumage.

The still air was full of leaves that sailed to earth in leisurely sadness.

We were both thoughtful.
"Mrs.Potts is a very alert and capable woman," I said at last, having decided that this would be the most suitable thing to say.
"I tell you she has _powers_," said Solon, in a tone almost of awe.
"She will teach you to make something of yourself," I hazarded.
"One minute she makes me want to fight, and the next I surrender," he answered pathetically.
We separated on this, Solon going toward the _Argus_ office with slow steps and bowed head, while I went thoughtfully abroad to ease my nerves by watching the splendid death of summer.

Above the hills, now royally colored, as by great rugs of brown and crimson velvet flung over their flanks, I seemed to hear the echoes of ironic laughter--the laughter of perverse gods who had chosen to avenge the slight put upon an inferior Potts..