word about that to
Lucy, and if you two girls go there, you must be very careful not to
drop a word about it. Lucy is getting old, and she can't bear up under
trouble as she used to could. She has aged wonderfully in the past few
weeks. Don't you think so, Nan?"

She held up her ear-trumpet as she spoke, and Nan made a great pretence
of yelling into it, though not a sound issued from her lips. Miss Polly
frowned. "Don't talk so loud, my dear; you will make people think I'm a
great deal deafer than I am. But you always would yell at me, though I
have asked you a dozen times to speak only in ordinary tones. Well, I
don't agree with you about Lucy. She has broken terribly since Gabriel
was carried off; she is not the same woman, she takes no interest in
affairs at all. I told her a piece of astonishing news, and she paid no
more attention to it than if she hadn't heard it; and she didn't use to
be that way. Well, we all have our troubles, and you two will have yours
when you grow a little older. That is one thing of which there is always
enough left to go around. The supply is never exhausted."

After delivering this truism, Miss Polly waved her turkey-tail fan as
majestically as she knew how, and went toddling along home. Miss Polly
was a kind-hearted woman, but she couldn't resist the inclination to
gossip and tattle. Her tattle did no harm, for her weakness was well
advertised in that community; but, unfortunately, her deafness had made
her both suspicious and irritable. When in company, for instance, she
insisted on feeling that people were talking about her when the
conversation was not carried on loud enough for her to hear the sound of
the voices, if not the substance of what was said, and she had a way of
turning to the one closest at hand, with the remark, "They should have
better manners than to talk of the afflictions of an old woman, for it
is not at all certain that they will escape." Naturally this would call
out a protest on the part of all present, whereupon Miss Polly would
shake her head, and remark that she was not as deaf as many people
supposed; that, in fact, there were days when she could hear almost as
well as she heard before the affliction overtook her.

"I wonder," said Nan, whose curiosity was always ready to be aroused,
"what piece of astonishing news Miss Polly has been telling Grandmother
Lumsden. Perhaps she has told her of the events of the morning at Mr.
Tomlin's."

"That is absurd, N