thus moistened,
she touched it to the flat-iron, which hissed smartly, and which she
applied then to the apron on the board.

"Laws-a-massy! chile, the polls is jes' closed, an' all the country
deestric's ter be hearn from. We won't know till ter-morrer--till late
ter-night, nohow."

Theodosia leaned against the gate. How could she wait! How could she
endure the suspense! She thought of Justus, and of her promise to fix
the date of the wedding on election day, but only as an additional
factor of trouble in her own anxiety and indecision.

"Wat's been hyar ez cross ez two sticks," said Mrs. Elmer. She paused
to hold up the apron, exquisitely white, and sheer, and stiff, and to
gaze with critical professional eyes upon it; she was what is known as
a "beautiful washer and ironer," although otherwise not comely. "Wat's
beat plumb out o' sight, ef the truth war knowed, I reckon. He 'lows
he's powerful 'feared. Ef't war Justus, now, _he'd_ hev been 'lected
sure. Justus is a mighty s'perior man; pity he never hed no
eddication. He could hev done anything--sharp ez a brier. Yes; Wat's
beat, I reckon."

In the instant Theodosia's heart sank. But she turned from the
palings, and sauntered resolutely on. It well behooved her to take
counsel with herself. "I mought hev made a turr'ble, turr'ble
mistake," she muttered. She was sensible of a sharp pang pervading her
consciousness. Nevertheless, judgment clamored for recognition.

"Everybody gins Justus a good name, better'n Wat," she argued. "An' ef
Wat _ain't_ 'lected"--

She walked down the street with a freer step, her head lifted, her
self-respect more secure. With the possible collapse of her prospect
of living in Colbury, and her ambition to adjust herself to the
exigent demands of its more ornate civilization, her natural untrained
grace was returning to her. She felt that she was certainly stylish
enough for the hills, where she was likely to live all her days, and
with this realization she quite unconsciously seemed easy enough,
unconstrained enough, graceful enough, to pass muster in a wider
sphere. Her heart was beating placidly now with the casting away of
this new expectation that had made all its pulses tense. The still air
was cooler, or at least darker. A roseate suffusion was in the sky,
although a star twinkled there. More people were in the streets; doors
and windows were open, and faces appeared now and again among the
vines and curtains. As she hesitated