asonable about
such things, but there's some I could name"--Miss Hull at this point
put several pins into her mouth, as if to guard a secret.

Mrs. Topliff looked up with interest. "I always thought Ann Ball was
the meanest woman about such expense. She always looked respectable
too, and I s'pose she 'd said the heathen was gittin' the good o' what
she saved. She must have given away hundreds o' dollars in that
direction."

"She left plenty too, and I s'pose Cap'n Asaph's Mis' French will get
the good of it now," said Miranda through the pins. "Seems to me he's
gittin' caught in spite of himself. Old vain creatur', he seemed to
think all the women-folks in town was in love with him."

"Some was," answered Mrs. Topliff. "I think any woman that needed a
home would naturally think 't was a good chance." She thought that
Miranda had indulged high hopes, but wished to ignore them now.

"Some that had a home seemed inclined to bestow their affections, I
observed," retorted the dressmaker, who had lost her little property
by unfortunate investment, but would not be called homeless by
Mrs. Topliff. Everybody knew that the widow had set herself down
valiantly to besiege the enemy; but after this passage at arms between
the friends they went on amiably with their conversation.

"Seems to me the minister and Mis' Calvinn are dreadful intimate at
the Cap'n's. I wonder if the Cap'n's goin' to give as much to the
heathen as his sister did?" said Mrs. Topliff, presently.

"I understood he told the minister that none o' the heathen was wuth
it that ever he see," replied Miranda in a pinless voice at last. "Mr.
Calvinn only laughed; he knows the Cap'n's ways. But I shouldn't
thought Asaph Ball would have let his hired help set out and ask
company to tea just four weeks from the day his only sister was laid
away. 'T wa'n't feelin'."

"That Mis' French wanted to get the minister's folks to back her up,
don't you understand?" was Mrs. Topliff's comment. "I should think the
Calvinns wouldn't want to be so free and easy with a woman from nobody
knows where. She runs in and out o' the parsonage any time o' day, as
Ann Ball never took it upon her to do. Ann liked Mis' Calvinn, but she
always had to go through with just so much, and be formal with
everybody."

"I'll tell you something that exasperated _me_," confided the
disappointed Miranda. "That night they was there to tea, Mis' Calvinn
was praising up a handsome flowered china bow