"I shall wear my cap an' my cardigan jacket to go over there," the
neighborly disposed Susan reflected as she carefully drank the last of
the tea. "Dear, dear! but it's goin' to be a terrible shock to her, poor
thing!"
Then she arose and carefully and scrupulously put the kitchen back into
its customary order. Having removed the last trace of any one's ever
having cooked or eaten there, she lighted a candle and sought her wraps
in the icy upper regions of the house. As she passed the parlor door she
shivered involuntarily.
"I expect he was cold," she murmured; "I know I was. But I could n't see
my way to sittin' in the kitchen with a caller: I never was one to do
nothin' improper, an' I was n't goin' to begin at my age."
Then she went upstairs and got out the cap and jacket. It was a man's
cap, with ear-tabs, and not at all in keeping with the fair Susan's
features; but she gave no heed to such matters and tied it on with two
firm jerks.
"I jus' do hope," she ejaculated as she struggled into the cardigan, "'t
she won't faint. It'll surely come very sudden on her, too, an' all my
talk 's to the advantage o' stayin' unmarried, an' the times an' times I
've said as we was always goin' to stay jus' so--"
The termination of the jacket-buttoning terminated the soliloquy also.
Miss Clegg went downstairs and warmed her hands at the kitchen stove,
preparatory to locking up. Ten minutes later she was tapping at Mrs.
Lathrop's door.
"I must n't tell her too quick," she reminded herself as she waited to
be let in; "I must lead up to it like they do after a railroad smash.
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