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Thompson accepted the offering with evident surprise. "Yes, that's my goods," she acknowledged. "But it's so little, I don't see how I can use it." "You never can tell when a scrap like that will come in useful," Persis declared convincingly. "And by the way, Mis' Thompson, I wonder if your husband happens to have handy that ridiculous letter that was meant for another Thompson."
Persis, who planned to clear the cobwebs from her tired brain by an exhilarating spin in her car at four o'clock, had appointed two for Mrs. West to try on the black silk. By quarter past she was fidgety, and as the clock struck the half hour, she waxed indignant. "Now, Etta West needn't think I'm going to put myself out to make her dress if she can't keep her appointments.
Richards, breathing hard, had no comment to offer on that delicate point. "Now the case is just this." Persis spoke briskly. "After you're dead and gone, Nelson's bound to marry again. A widower just can't help himself. What with all the women scheming to catch him, he's got about as much chance as a potato-bug turned loose in a chicken-yard.
He's a man who likes cheerful company, and Hetty's what I call a natural widow. You know some folks are born that way. They kind of hang crêpe on everything they touch. Hetty drizzles tears as easy as a sponge." "Well, really, Persis, as long as Nelson and I are satisfied with the arrangement I don't know as you have any call to trouble yourself."
"It's 'stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, as Shakespeare says, to entice your fellowmen." "The jaw-bone of that ass that Samson killed a thousand Philistines with," returned Persis severely, "ain't to be compared for deadliness, it seems, with a woman's collar-bone. Looks to me as if 'twas high time to stop calling women the weaker sex when it takes so little to bring about a man's undoing.
"I should like to know," she said, having brought the matter up, "whether he would have thought it was such a light matter if it had been his own children. Do you suppose he'd have been so ready to act on his own advice if it HAD been?" "He told us the right thing to do, Persis, the only thing. We couldn't let it go on," urged her husband gently. "Well, it makes me despise Pen!
For years, she had returned Persis' dislike with the added venom of a small nature. But at this moment, when an outpouring of confidence seemed essential, she knew there was no one to whom she could speak so freely as to this woman she had hated. "Life's cruel, cruel! It promises us women everything. And then it cheats us and tricks us and takes away all that it gave, one thing after another.
"Ain't dinner ready?" "Dinner?" "Yes, dinner! What ails you? You act as if you'd never heard of such a thing as meal-time." "I didn't think it was time for dinner yet," Persis answered, rousing herself. Again Joel inspected her sharply. "Haven't you been sewing this morning?" "No, I did start, but I didn't feel like keeping it up." Joel's face expressed mingled concern and amazement.
And subdued firste that: then Persis, then Antioche, and then Ierusalem. Thus their power and fame daily so encreaced, and grewe: that men muche feared, that any thing afterwarde shoulde be able to resiste them.
One day my friend returned from a visit to the stone house, quite breathless, her pretty old face pink with excitement. She sat down on the chair nearest the door, and gazed at me with, speechless emotion. "Dear Miss Persis!" I cried. "What has happened? Have you had bad news?" Miss Persis shook her head. "Bad news? I should think not, indeed! Child, Madam Le Baron wishes to see you.
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