r it
might not be, but it was not the reason for that woman looking as if she
was just ready to drop into a sick-bed. When people go to the most
unhealthy regions in the whole world, and live in holes in the ground
like hedgehogs, they cannot expect to come home without seeds of disease
in their system, which are bound to come out. And that those seeds were
now coming out in Mrs. Cliff no sensible person could look at her and
deny."

When Miss Cushing heard this, she felt more strongly convinced than ever
of the importance of the subject upon which she and some of her friends
had been talking. But she said nothing in regard to that subject to Miss
Shott. What she had to say and what she had already said about the
future of Mrs. Cliff's property, and what her particular friends had
said, were matters which none of them wanted repeated, and when a
citizen of Plainton did not wish anything repeated, it was not told to
Miss Shott.

But after Miss Shott had gone, there came in Mrs. Ferguson, a widow
lady, and shortly afterwards, Miss Inchman, a middle-aged spinster,
accompanied by Mrs. Wells and Mrs. Archibald, these latter both worthy
matrons of the town. Mrs. Archibald really came to talk to Miss Cushing
about a winter dress, but during the subsequent conversation she made no
reference to this errand.

Miss Cushing was relating to Mrs. Ferguson what Nancy had told her when
the other ladies came in, but Nancy Shott had stopped in at each of
their houses and had already given them the information.

"Nancy always makes out things a good deal worse than they are," said
Mrs. Archibald, "but there's truth in what she says. Mrs. Cliff is
failing; everybody can see that!"

"Of course they can," said Miss Cushing, "and I say that if she has any
friends in Plainton,--and everybody knows she has,--it's time for them
to do something!"

"The trouble is, what to do, and who is to do it," remarked Mrs.
Ferguson.

"What to do is easy enough," said Miss Cushing, "but who is to do it is
another matter."

"And what would you do?" asked Mrs. Wells. "If she feels she needs a
doctor, she has sense enough to send for one without waiting until her
friends speak about it."

"The doctor is a different thing altogether!" said Miss Cushing. "If he
comes and cures her, that's neither here nor there. It isn't the point!
But the danger is, that, whether he comes or not, she is a woman well on
in years, with a constitution breaking down unde