"You won't get a rise out of
me, my dear boy."
Dr. Wilson chuckled.
"You're a devilish humbug," he remarked admiringly; "but you do manage
to get a lot of fun out of it."
She smoothed her gown a moment, half smiling and half grave.
"Of course it's of no use to tell you that in spite of all my fun I'm
serious at bottom," she said slowly; "but it's a fact all the same. I
don't take things with doleful solemnity like the old tabbies; but
that's no sign that I'm not just as sincere. It's no matter, though;
you won't believe it. What did you want to see me about?"
"Oh, it was about those mortgages. I saw Lincoln this morning, and he
has heard from Mrs. Frostwinch. She insists upon paying them off."
"Then there isn't any truth in the story that that Sampson woman is
circulating that Anna is going to build a spiritual temple or
something. I never believed that Anna could be such an idiot as to give
her money for anything so vulgar."
"The whole thing is nonsensical on the face of it," was his response.
"Mrs. Frostwinch can't build churches, let alone temples, if there's
any difference."
"Oh, in these days," Elsie interpolated, "a temple is only a church
_declasse_.
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