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The impenetrable shelter of chiffon awed Miss Mehitable, but she was not a woman to give up easily when embarked upon the quest for knowledge. Some unusual state of mind kept her from asking a direct question about the veil, and meanwhile she continually racked her memory. Miss Evelina's white, slender hands opened and closed nervously.
It always meant jealousy, Miss Mehitable knew that, and usually her peace-loving, sunny nature pacified and coaxed the offended one, but occasionally she stood her ground. She knew that presently the Barry car would again draw up before her gate and she felt she must forestall Charlotte's sneers. "How soon you goin'?" inquired the latter mildly. "At three o'clock," returned Miss Upton bravely.
"The one who wears the queer lace cap and sits in the big chair by the hearth all day and all night, too, Tommy Spade says, 'cause he peeped through once at midnight and she was still there, sitting so stiff that it scared him and he ran away. Well, Aunt Mehitable sold her a dozen, and she got a side of bacon and a bag of meal."
"Miss Upton would give it to me. So extravagant!" The elaborate wink which Miss Mehitable bestowed on Ben as he glanced at her over his love's head was intended to warn him that he had a bill to pay. "Miss Upton has been your good fairy all along, hasn't she?" His look was so intense and he spoke so seriously that Geraldine glanced up at him half timidly and down again.
"For the lands sake!" ejaculated Miss Mehitable. "Wasn't he drunk four months ago and wasn't he caught stealing the Deacon's chickens? You don't mean to tell me you never heard of that?" "I believe I did hear," returned the minister, in polite recognition of the fact that it had been Miss Mehitable's sole conversational topic at the time.
What a perfect name for the most charming, graceful, exquisite human flower that ever bloomed!" Turning suddenly, the rapt speaker encountered Mrs. Whipp's twisted, acid, hungrily listening countenance. He emitted a burst of laughter and looked back at Miss Mehitable, who was wiping her eyes.
"He did need some consolation prize, and anyway he persuaded me to let him have an aeroplane." "Mrs. Barry!" returned Miss Mehitable, and she gazed around at Ben with wide eyes. "I'm such a bird, you see," he explained. "Well," said the visitor after a pause, drawing her suspended breath, "I'm glad I can talk to you before you're killed." "Oh, not so bad as that," said Mrs. Barry.
"Minty," she said, anxiously, "don't you feel right? It was hot yesterday, and the excitement, and all I dunno but you may have had a stroke." Araminta smiled a lovable, winning smile. "No, I haven't had any 'stroke, but I've made all the quilts I'm going to until I get to be an old woman, and have nothing else to do." "What are you layin' out to do, Minty?" demanded Miss Mehitable.
"Araminta Lee," said Miss Mehitable, warningly, "look careful where you're steppin'. Hell is yawning in front of you this very minute!" Araminta smiled sweetly. Since the day the minister had gone to see her, she had had no fear of hell. "I don't see it, Aunt Hitty," she said, "but if everybody who hasn't pieced more than eight quilts by hand is in there, it must be pretty crowded."
"You needn't have looked, Aunty, if you didn't like to see it." "Do you know where I went when I went out? I went up to Deacon Robinson's to lay your case before him." Miss Mehitable paused, for the worthy deacon was the fearsome spectre of young sinners. Araminta executed an intricate dance step of her own devising, but did not seem interested in the advice he had given.
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