r the respite from the present one;
I was puzzled to know which it did mean.

We always had our supper at our sewing meetings at precisely five
o'clock, and now it was an hour later. Mrs. White rose and went out
directly, and Flora Clark and I followed her to assist. We began
laying the table as fast as we could, while Mrs. White was cutting
the cake. The ladies of the society brought the cake and pie, and
Mrs. White furnished the bread and tea. However, that night it was so
very warm we had decided to have lemonade instead of tea. Mrs. White
had put it to vote among the ladies when they first came, and we had
all decided in favor of lemonade. There was another reason for Mrs.
White not having tea: she has no dining-room, but eats in her kitchen
summer and winter. It is a very large room, but of course in such
heat as there was that day even a little fire would have made it
unendurably warm. So she had planned to have her biscuits baked in
Mrs. Bemis' stove and have lemonade.

Our preparations were nearly completed, and we were placing the last
things on the table, when my sister-in-law, Louisa Field, came out,
and I knew that something was wrong.

"What is the matter?" said I.

Louisa looked at Flora as if she were almost afraid to speak, but
finally it came out: Mrs. Jameson must have some hot water to prepare
her health food, as she dared not eat our hurtful cake and pie,
especially in such heat.

Flora Clark's eyes snapped. She could not be repressed any longer,
so she turned on poor Louisa as if she were the offender. "Let her
go home, then!" said she. "She sha'n't have any hot water in this
house!"

Flora spoke very loud, and Mrs. White was in agony. "Oh, Flora!
don't, don't!" said she. But she looked at the cold kitchen stove
in dismay.

I suggested boiling the kettle on Mrs. Bemis' stove; but that could
not be done, for the hired girl had gone away buggy-riding with her
beau after she had brought in the biscuits, and Mrs. Bemis was not at
the sewing circle: her mother, in the next town, was ill, and she had
gone to see her. So the Bemis house was locked up, and the fire no
doubt out. Mrs. White lives on an outlying farm, and there was not
another neighbor within a quarter of a mile. If Mrs. Jameson must
have that hot water for her hygienic food there was really nothing
to do but to make up the fire in the kitchen stove, no matter how
uncomfortable we all might be in consequence.

Flora Clark said in