one keeps a gal from makin' a
perfect _fule_ of herself," cried the old lady, bridling. "S'pose
you'd been jest a drudge for Hopewell, all these years, Amarilla
Scattergood?"

"I might not have been a drudge," said Miss 'Rill, softly, flushing
over her needlework. "At least my life--and his--would have been
different."

"Ye don't know how lucky you be," snapped her mother. "And this is all
the thanks I git for tellin' Hopewell Drugg that he'd brought his pigs
to the wrong market."

"At least," said the spinster, with a sigh, "he will never worry you on
that score again, mother--he nor any other man. When a woman gets near
to forty, with more silver than gold in her hair, and the best of her
useless life is behind her, she need expect no change in her estate,
that's sure."

"Ye might be a good deal wuss off," sniffed her mother.

"Perhaps that is so," agreed Miss 'Rill, with a sudden hard little
laugh. "But don't _you_ take pattern by me, Janice, no matter what
folks tell you. Mrs. Beasely is better off than I am. She has the
memory of doing for somebody whom she loved and who loved her. While
I----Well, I'm just an old maid, and when you say that about a woman,
you say the worst!"

"Why, the idee!" exclaimed her mother, with wrath. "I call that flyin'
right in the face of Providence."

"I don't believe that God ever had old maids in the original scheme of
things."

"Humph! didn't He?" snapped Mrs. Scattergood. "Then why is there so
many more women than men in the world? Will you please tell me that,
Amarilla?" and this unanswerable argument closed what Janice realized
was not the first discussion of the unpleasant topic, between the
ex-schoolteacher and her sharp-tongued mother.

CHAPTER XXVI

JUST HOW IT ALL BEGAN

It was one of those soft, irresponsible days of April. The heavens
clouded up and wept like a naughty child upon the least pretext; yet
between the showers the sun warmed the glad earth, and coaxed the
catkins into bloom, and even expanded the first buds of the huge lilac
bush at the corner of the Day house.

This was a special occasion; one could easily guess that from the
bustle manifest about the place. Aunt 'Mira and Janice had been busy
since light. Mrs Day was not in the habit of "givin' things a lick and
a promise" nowadays when she cleaned house. No, indeed! They gave the
house a "thorough riddin' up," and were scarcely through at dinner-time.

Then they hurr