r
it your time's wasted an' if they don't get over it the time's wasted
all around. My own opinion is as all love affairs is a very foolish kind
o' business, for you never find real sensible folks havin' anythin' to
do with 'em. But it was no use talkin' that to-day, so Henry Ward
Beecher hung up there on the breakfast foods, an' we sat an' watched him
like combination cats till long about five Johnny come by an' said as
Mr. Sperrit had took Emma home with them to tea."

"Oh--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, impulsively.

"I don't know why not," said Susan, "my own opinion is as he's a
idiot--"

"Mr. Sper--"

"No, Henry Ward Beecher. It's always struck me as a very strange thing
as we had n't got one single idiot in this community an' I guess the
real truth is as we've had one all the time an' did n't know him by
sight. There's a idiot most everywhere till he gets the idea into his
head to kill some one an' so gives others the idea as he's safer shut
up, an' so it ain't surprisin' our havin' one too. I see Mrs. Brown on
my way home an' I asked her if she did n't think as I was right. She
said she would n't be surprised if it was true, an' it was very odd as
she'd never thought o' it before, recollectin' her experience with him
years ago when she had him that time as the minister went to the
Sperrits' on his vacation. She went on to say then as to her order o'
thinkin' Mr. an' Mrs. Sperrit come pretty close to bein' idiots
themselves, for she says she don't know she's sure what ails 'em but
they've been married years now an' is still goin' round as beamin' as
two full moons. She says it ain't anythin' to talk of in public but
actually to see 'em drivin' back from market sometimes most makes her
wish as she was n't a widow, an' she says anythin' as'd make her sorry
she's a widow had n't ought to be goin' round loose in a Christian town.
She was very much in earnest an' Mrs. Fisher overtook us just then an'
she said it all over again to her an' she said more, too--she said as
the way she looks at him in church is all right an' really nothin' but a
joy to look on afore marriage, but she don't consider it hardly decent
afterwards for it's deludin' an' can't possibly be meant in earnest. She
says she was married, an' her son is married, an' her father was
married, too, an' you can't tell her that the way Mr. an' Mrs. Sperrit
go on isn't suthin' pretty close to idiocy even if it ain't the whole
thing."

"You--" said Mrs. Lathrop.