anxious
eagerness.

"Certainly. He had a long siege of nervous dyspepsia, but he's over it."

"And you think--"

"Bibbs is all right. You needn't wor--" Sibyl choked, and pressed
her handkerchief to her mouth. "Good night, Mrs. Vertrees," she said,
hurriedly, as the head-lights of an automobile swung round the corner
above, sending a brightening glare toward the edge of the pavement where
the two ladies were standing.

"Won't you come in?" urged Mrs. Vertrees, cordially, hearing the sound
of a cheerful voice out of the darkness beyond the approaching glare.
"Do! There's Mary now, and she--"

But Sibyl was half-way across the street. "No, thanks," she called.
"I hope she won't miss her piano!" And she ran into her own house
and plunged headlong upon a leather divan in the hall, holding her
handkerchief over her mouth.

The noise of her tumultuous entrance was evidently startling in the
quiet house, for upon the bang of the door there followed the crash of
a decanter, dropped upon the floor of the dining-room at the end of the
hall; and, after a rumble of indistinct profanity, Roscoe came forth,
holding a dripping napkin in his hand.

"What's your excitement?" he demanded. "What do you find to go into
hysterics over? Another death in the family?"

"Oh, it's funny!" she gasped. "Those old frost-bitten people! I guess
THEY'RE getting their come-uppance!" Lying prone, she elevated her feet
in the air, clapped her heels together repeatedly, in an ecstasy.

"Come through, come through!" said her husband, crossly. "What you been
up to?"

"Me?" she cried, dropping her feet and swinging around to face him.
"Nothing. It's them! Those Vertreeses!" She wiped her eyes. "They've had
to sell their piano!"

"Well, what of it?"

"That Mrs. Kittersby told me all about 'em a week ago," said Sibyl.
"They've been hard up for a long time, and she says as long ago as
last winter she knew that girl got a pair of walking-shoes re-soled and
patched, because she got it done the same place Mrs. Kittersby's cook
had HERS! And the night of the house-warming I kind of got suspicious,
myself. She didn't have one single piece of any kind of real jewelry,
and you could see her dress was an old one done over. Men can't tell
those things, and you all made a big fuss over her, but I thought she
looked a sight, myself! Of course, EDITH was crazy to have her, and--"

"Well, well?" he urged, impatiently.

"Well, I'm TELLING you! Mrs. Kitter