'll bet a nickel that's what we're going to get!"

"Yes, sir."

We drove up the lane and stopped at the yard gate. Harriet opened the
door. I led the small dark figure into the warmth and light of the
kitchen. She stood helplessly holding the baby tight in her arms--as
forlorn and dishevelled a figure as one could well imagine.

"Harriet," I said, "this is Anna Williams."

Harriet gave me her most tremendous look. It seemed to me at that moment
that it wasn't my sister Harriet at all that I was facing, but some
stranger and much greater person than I had ever known. Every man has,
upon occasion, beheld his wife, his sister, his mother even, become
suddenly unknown, suddenly commanding, suddenly greater than himself or
any other man. For a woman possesses the occult power of becoming
instantly, miraculously, the Accumulated and Personified Customs, Morals
and Institutions of the Ages. At this moment, then, I felt myself slowly
but surely shrinking and shriveling up. It is a most uncomfortable
sensation to find one's self face to face with Society-at-Large. Under
such circumstances I always know what to do. I run. So I clapped my hat
on my head, declared that the mare must be unharnessed immediately, and
started for the door. Harriet followed. Once outside she closed the door
behind her.

"David, _David_, DAVID," she said.

It occurred to me now for the first time (which shows how stupid I am)
that Harriet had already heard the story of Anna Williams. And it had
gained so much bulk and robustity in travelling, as such stories do in
the country, that I have no doubt the poor child seemed a sort of
devastating monster of iniquity. How the country scourges those who do
not walk the beaten path! In the, careless city such a one may escape to
unfamiliar streets and consort with unfamiliar people, and still find a
way of life, but here in the country the eye of Society never sleeps!

For a moment I was appalled by what I had done. Then I thought of the
Harriet I knew so well: the inexhaustible heart of her. With a sudden
inspiration I opened the kitchen door and we both looked in. The girl
stood motionless just where I left her: an infinitely pathetic figure.

"Harriet," I said, "that girl is hungry--and cold."

Well, it worked. Instantly Harriet ceased to be Society-at-Large and
became the Harriet I know, the Harriet of infinite compassion for all
weak creatures. When she had gone in I pulled my hat down and went
str