ce?"

Mrs. Richards, breathing hard, had no comment to offer on that delicate
point.

"Now the case is just this." Persis spoke briskly. "After you're dead
and gone, Nelson's bound to marry again. A widower just can't help
himself. What with all the women scheming to catch him, he's got about
as much chance as a potato-bug turned loose in a chicken-yard. Queer
thing, the difference between bachelors and widowers," mused Persis,
straying temporarily into generalizations. "By the time a bachelor's
as old as Nelson, the women have kind of given up on him. But if a
man's been married once it proves that he's got a soft spot somewhere,
and all that's needed is for them to keep on trying till they find it.
But as I was saying. Charlotte, I thought that it might ease your mind
to know that he ain't going to be allowed to throw himself away. While
I don't want to seem boastful about it, I don't mind saying to you that
there's not another woman in the town who would stand any show
alongside me, if Nelson was free to pick and choose. And I'll give you
my solemn promise that he shan't put anybody in your place that you'd
be ashamed to acknowledge for your husband's second wife."

Forgetting her pitiful lack of strength, Mrs. Richards sat erect, her
hollow cheeks aflame.

"Persis Dale, have you got the nerve to sit there and tell me to my
face that you're going to set your cap for my husband after I'm dead?"

"Now lie down, Charlotte, till I explain." Persis' soothing tone
suggested readiness to excuse the natural peevishness of an invalid.
"You mustn't go to exciting yourself, and hastening the end."

Mrs. Richards promptly resumed her recumbent position.

"I've talked plain to you, Charlotte," Persis said, "because you're not
of the same clay as most women. You've always been wrapped up in
celestial things since you was a girl. But a woman can't live with a
man as long as you've lived with Nelson and not feel responsible for
him. And I've told you this so there won't be a single shadow on your
mind these last days. I'll look out for Nelson." She spoke with the
air of one accepting a sacred trust.

"I never heard of such a thing," breathed Mrs. Richards from the
pillows.

"Of course while you were living, Charlotte," Persis continued, as if
the release so cheerfully anticipated by the invalid had already been
consummated, "I never should have allowed myself to think of Nelson
twice. But I own I've blame