d black and white cannot
lie."

It was Jane who spoke first. "What will people say?" she whimpered,
feebly.

"From what I have heard you all say to-night, whatever you make them,"
retorted Annie--the Annie who had turned.

Jane gasped. Silas Hempstead stood staring, quite dumb before the
sudden problem. Imogen alone seemed to have any command whatever of the
situation.

"May I inquire what the butcher and grocer are going to think, no
matter what your own sisters think and say, when you give your orders
in writing?" she inquired, achieving a jolt from tragedy to the
commonplace.

"That is my concern," replied Annie, yet she recognized the difficulty
of that phase of the situation. It is just such trifling matters which
detract from the dignity of extreme attitudes toward existence. Annie
had taken an extreme attitude, yet here were the butcher and the grocer
to reckon with. How could she communicate with them in writing without
appearing absurd to the verge of insanity? Yet even that difficulty had
a solution.

Annie thought it out after she had gone to bed that night. She had been
imperturbable with her sisters, who had finally come in a body to
make entreaties, although not apologies or retractions. There was
a stiff-necked strain in the Hempstead family, and apologies and
retractions were bitterer cuds for them to chew than for most. She had
been imperturbable with her father, who had quoted Scripture and prayed
at her during family worship. She had been imperturbable even with
Benny, who had whispered to her: "Say, Annie, I don't blame you, but it
will be a hell of a time without you. Can't you stick it out?"

But she had had a struggle before her own vision of the butcher and the
grocer, and their amazement when she ceased to speak to them. Then she
settled that with a sudden leap of inspiration. It sounded too apropos
to be life, but there was a little deaf-anddumb girl, a far-away
relative of the Hempsteads, who lived with her aunt Felicia in
Anderson. She was a great trial to her aunt Felicia, who was a widow
and well-to-do, and liked the elegancies and normalities of life. This
unfortunate little Effie Hempstead could not be placed in a charitable
institution on account of the name she bore. Aunt Felicia considered it
her worldly duty to care for her, but it was a trial.

Annie would take Effie off Aunt Felicia's hands, and no comment would
be excited by a deaf-anddumb girl carrying written messages