Publisher's Synopsis
The Breakfast Table, 1856. Henry Colbert, the miller, always breakfasted with his wife-beyond that he appeared irregularly at the family table. At noon, the dinner hour, he was often detained down at the mill. His place was set for him; he might come, or he might send one of the mill-hands to bring him a tray from the kitchen. The Mistress was served promptly. She never questioned as to his whereabouts. On this morning in March 1856, he walked into the dining-room at eight o'clock, -came up from the mill, where he had been stirring about for two hours or more
