l you that I should
like to talk to you about something some time to-d--" The rest of the
sentence was lost upon Mr. Juddson, who had already shut the door behind
him, and Mrs. Tarbell felt aggrieved.

So much aggrieved, in fact, that she found it impossible to return to
the law-journal.

"I suppose I need a sedative," she said to herself. "If I were a man, I
would put my feet up on the table and light a cigar, or--no! I would
never practise that vilest form of the vice." (What she meant by this
last phrase I cannot imagine, unless she referred to something which Mr.
Juddson had been driven to do because he could not very well smoke while
his sister was in the office.) "What," continued Mrs. Tarbell, "what can
there be to recommend the position?" She looked at the desk.

"Is it an easy position?" she said. She looked down at her feet.

"Is it even a graceful position?" She swung herself to and fro on her
revolving-chair.

She looked about her. The office was empty; the office-boy had gone on a
very long errand. "I will try it," she said, with determination.

She removed all the books and papers on the right side of the table to
the left side. Then she tilted back her chair, elevated her left foot
cautiously, put it down, and elevated her right, placed it determinedly
on the table, crossed the other foot over it, leaned forward with some
difficulty to arrange her skirts, leaned back again.

"My book seems to lie very easily in my lap," she said to herself. "And
the leaves turn over quite willingly."

One page, two pages, three pages. "After all," said she,--"after all--if
one were quite alone--and had been sitting for a long time in another
attitude--"

Tap-tap! came a timid knock at the door.

"Come in!" cried Mrs. Tarbell, resuming her former position in a great
hurry, and dropping the law-journal.

Tap-tap!

"Come in!" said Mrs. Tarbell, picking up the law-journal. "_Come in_!"
she said.

And the door opened slowly.

"Well?" said Mrs. Tarbell.

"Is Mrs. Tarbell in?" said the party of the knocks.

"I am Mrs. Tarbell. Come in, please. What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to see you, ma'am."

"Take a chair. Well?"

"I suppose it's April weather," said the new-comer; "but the rain is
right chilly, so it is; like it was a November rain, somehow. Will I put
my umbreller right down here? The spring is dreadful late, and the
farmers is all complainin', they tell me."

Mrs. Tarbell shuddered.

The ne