Old Chester rocked with the Captain’s report of his call; and Mrs. Cyrus told her husband that she only wished this lady would stop his father’s smoking.

“Just look at his ashes,” said Gussie; “I put saucers round everywhere to catch ’em, but he shakes ’em off anywhere—right on the carpet! And if you say anything, he just says, ‘Oh, they’ll keep the moths away!’ I worry so for fear he’ll set the house on fire.”

[Page 26]Mrs. Cyrus was so moved by Miss North’s active mission-work that the very next day she wandered across the street to call. “I hope I’m not interrupting you,” she began, “but I thought I’d just—”

[Page 26]

“Yes; you are,” said Miss North; “but never mind; stay, if you want to.” She tried to smile, but she looked at the duster which she had put down upon Mrs. Cyrus’s entrance.

Gussie wavered as to whether to take offence, but decided not to—at least not until she could make the remark which was buzzing in her small mind. It seemed strange, she said, that Mrs. North should come, not only to Old Chester, but right across the street from Captain Price!

“Why?” said Mary North, briefly.

“Why?” said Mrs. Cyrus, with faint[Page 27] animation. “Gracious! is it possible that you don’t know about your mother and my father-in-law?”

[Page 27]

“Your father-in-law?—my mother?”

“Why, you know,” said Mrs. Cyrus, with her light cackle, “your mother was a little romantic when she was young. No doubt she has conquered it by this time. But she tried to elope with my father-in-law.”

“What!”

“Oh, bygones should be bygones,” Mrs. Cyrus said, soothingly; “forgive and forget, you know. I have no doubt she is perfectly—well, perfectly correct, now. If there’s anything I can do to assist you, ma’am, I’ll send my husband over”; and then she lounged away, leaving poor Mary North silent with indignation. But that night at tea Gussie said that she thought strong-minded ladies were[Page 28] very unladylike; “they say she’s strong-minded,” she added, languidly.

[Page 28]

“Lady!” said the Captain. “She’s a man-o’-war’s-man in petticoats.”

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