"I presume, if you saw him at all, you saw how long he stayed?"
"Yes, I--"
"All of two hours, an' his talk was as dumfounderin' on me as it will be
on you. I 'd never thought o' any such doin's in this direction. I
always looked on as a complete outsider, did n't you?"
"I don't un--"
Susan had shed her jacket and cap while talking; she now took a chair
and surveyed her friend with the air of one who has pain to inflict and
yet is firm.
Mrs. Lathrop looked frankly troubled.
"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you 'd ought to know me well enough, after all
these years, to know as I shall make this as easy as I can for you.
Perhaps the best way 'll be to go 'way back to the beginnin' an' speak
o' when Mrs. White died. It'll be a proper leadin' up, for if she had
n't died, he 'd never 'a' come to see me this afternoon, an' I 'd never
'a' come to see you to-night. Howsumsever, she did die; an', bein' dead,
I will say for her husband as you don't find chick or child in town to
deny as a nicer, tidier, more biddable little man never lived; 'n' 's
far as my personal feelin's go, I should think 't any woman might
consider it nothin' but a joy to get a man 's is always so long on the
door-mat 'n' so busy with his tie 's the deacon is. He got some wore out
toward the last o' her illness, for she was give' up in September 'n'
died in July; but even then I 've heard Mrs. Allen say 's it was jus'
pretty to see him putterin' aroun' busy 's a bee, tryin' to keep dusted
up for the funeral any minute.
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