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It was Asaph Tidditt who told me how to begin this history. Perhaps I should be very much obliged to Asaph; perhaps I shouldn't. He has gotten me out of a difficulty or into one; I am far from certain which.
"Wonder where Phoebe went to," remarked Mr. Tidditt, a little later. "I thought I saw her with Heman and Georgianna on the front steps when we drove up." "She was there," affirmed the housekeeper. "She'd been helpin' me trim up the rooms here. What do you think of 'em, Cap'n Cyrus? Ain't they pretty?" The sitting room and dining room were gay with evergreens and old-fashioned flowers.
I took in a cat for company 'tother day, but the critter's run away. To see it look at the beans in its saucer and then at me was pitiful; I felt like handin' myself over to the Cruelty to Animals' folks." "Is she neat?" inquired Mr. Tidditt. "I don't know. I guess so on the installment plan. It takes her a week to scrub up the kitchen, and then one end of it is so dirty she has to begin again.
The side door of the house opened. The next instant Mr. Tidditt, a dripping umbrella in his hand, entered the sitting room. "Hello, Whit!" he hailed. "Just run in for a minute to say howdy." Then he noticed the schoolmistress, and his expression changed. "Oh! how be you, Miss Dawes?" he said. "I didn't see you fust off. Don't run away on my account."
You didn't seem surprised when I told you the case was settled." "Surprised? Why, no! I thought Heman had Never mind that. Land of love! SHE did it. She!" He sat weakly down. The lawyer looked anxious. "Mr. Tidditt," he whispered, "I think perhaps he had better be left alone for the present. He's just up from a sick bed, and this has been a trying forenoon. Come in again this afternoon.
"What?" he asked, and his hand shook. "I fear I didn't catch the name." "No wonder," laughed Mr. Tidditt. "Cy's so crazy to-night he'd forget his own name. Know what you said, Cy? You said she was Emily Richards THAYER! Haw! haw! She ain't a Thayer, Heman; her last name's Thomas. She's Emily Richards Thayer's granddaughter though. Her granddad was John Thayer, over to Orham. Good land! I forgot.
Tidditt and the captain, she had had about all the Debby Beasley she wanted. "Yes, yes, you will stop, too," affirmed the widow. "I want to tell you more about Blazeton. I can see that advertisement this minute, right afore my eyes 'Information wanted of my husband, Edward Higgins.
Then it developed that the Florabel seeking to communicate was not Miss Tidditt, but another, a relative so long gone that Tamson had forgotten she ever existed. At length she was brought to the point of admitting that it seemed as if she had heard of a cousin of her grandmother's named Florabel or Annabel or something.
Tidditt and his companion started and looked at each other. "Godfrey scissors!" gasped Asaph. "Is that half past twelve?" Mr. Bangs pulled a big worn silver watch from his pocket and glanced at the dial. "It is!" he moaned. "As sure's you're born, it is! We've kept Ketury's dinner waitin' twenty minutes. You and me are in for it now, Ase Tidditt! Twenty minutes late! She'll skin us alive." Mr.
Now, then! All hands to the ropes! Heave ho! THERE she comes!" The door flew back with a bang. A man sprang out upon the lower step of the porch. The eye of every inmate of the perfect boarding house was on him. Even the "hired help" peered from the kitchen door. "He's a stranger," whispered Mrs. Tripp. "I never see him before, did you, Mr. Tidditt?" The town clerk did not answer.
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