peddler, you know; had this old suit on, all sloshed up with soapsuds
and water, and a wet rag in my hand; and there she stood, styled up like
the Queen of Sheby. Well, sir! I'll leave it to you if 'tain't enough to
surprise anybody. HER! comin' HERE!"

"That wan't any reason why you should behave like a natural born--"

"Hold on! you let me finish tellin' Roscoe. 'Good afternoon,' says she.
'Is Mrs. Paine in?' Said it just like that, she did. I was so flustered
up from the sight of her that I didn't sense it right off and I says,
'What ma'am?' 'Is Mrs. Paine in?' says she. 'In?' says I--"

"Just like a poll parrot," interjected Dorinda.

"Are you goin' to let me tell this or ain't you? 'In?' says I; hadn't
sensed it yet, you see. 'Is Mrs. Paine to home?' she says. Now your ma,
Ros, ain't never been nowheres else BUT home sence land knows when, so
I supposed she must mean somebody else. 'Who?' says I, again. 'Mrs.
Comfort Paine,' says she. She raised her voice a little; guessed I was
deef, probably."

"If she'd guessed you was dumb she wouldn't have been fur off,"
commented Dorinda. I had not seen her so disturbed for many a day.

Her husband disdained to notice this interruption.

"'Mrs. Comfort Paine,' says she," he continued. "'She is in? And I says
'In?'"

"No, you didn't. You said, 'In where?' And she had all she could do
to keep from laughin'. I see her face as I got to the door, and it's a
mercy I got there when I did. Land knows what you'd have said next!"

"But, Dorindy, I tell you I thought--"

"YOU thought! I know what SHE must have thought. That she'd made a
mistake and run afoul of an asylum for the feeble-minded."

"Umph! I should have GOT feeble-minded if I'd had any more of that kind
of talk. What made her ask if a sick woman like Comfort was 'in' and 'to
home'? Couldn't be nowheres else, could she?"

"Rubbish! she meant could Mrs. Paine see folks, that's all."

"See 'em! How you talk! She ain't blind."

"Oh, my soul and body! She was tryin' to ask if she might make a call on
Comfort."

"Well then, why didn't she ask it; 'stead of wantin' to know if she was
in?"

"That's the high-toned way TO ask, and you'd ought to have known it."

"Humph! Do tell! Well, I ain't tony, myself. Don't have no chance to be
in this house. Nothin' but work, work, work! tongue, tongue, tongue! for
me around here. I'm disgusted, that's what I am."

"YOU'RE disgusted! What about, me?"

I had listened to as