the "Horse Repository," saw Miss Keith entering the doctor's
office, and wondered again how any one ever thought a small town dull.

CHAPTER X

THE WOMAN WITH A SORE THOUGHT

The turning of a key; the opening of a door, are commonplace sounds to
most of us; but to a prisoner, weary of his cell, they are sounds of
unspeakable rapture. The dripping of a tap, may have in it the element
of annoyance--if we have to get up and shut it off before we can get
to sleep, but a thirsty traveller on the burning sands of the desert,
would be wild with joy to hear it. All which is another way of saying
that everything in life is relative.

On the day that Pearl spoke in the school-house, there sat in one of
the seats listening to her, a sombre-faced woman, who rarely came to
any of the neighborhood gatherings. The women of the neighborhood,
having only the primary hypothesis of human conduct, said she was
"proud." She did not join heartily in their conversations when they
met her, and had an aloofness about her which could only be explained
that way. She had a certain daintiness about her, too, in her way of
dressing--even in the way she did her hair--and in her walk, which
made the women say with certain resentment, that Mrs. Paine would like
to be "dressy."

But if Mrs. Paine had any such ambitions, they were not likely to be
achieved, for although she and her husband had lived for years in this
favored district, and had had good crops, Sylvester Paine was known
all over the country as a hard man. The women would have liked Mrs.
Paine much better if she had talked more, and complained about
him--she was too close-mouthed they said. They freely told each other,
and told her, of their hopes, fears, trials and triumphs--but Mrs.
Paine's communications were yea and nay when the conversation was on
personal matters, and she had a way of closing her lips which somehow
prevented questions.

But on the day when Pearl spoke in the school Mrs. Paine's face
underwent a change which would have interested a student of human
nature. Something which had been long dead, came to life again that
day; fluttering, trembling, shrinking. In her eyes there came again
the dead hopes of the years, and it made her face almost pitiful in
its trembling eagerness. There was a dull red rage in her eyes too
that day, that was not good to see, and she was determined that it
should not be seen, and for that reason, she slipped away when Pearl
was t