d indeed smell something burning.

"I cannot tell you yet. I'm waiting for the other party," he answered.

"The other party? Whom do you expect? What does all this mean, anyway?
Why was I summoned here? Have we not had enough excitement for one day,
with the funeral this morning, and with every man in this town holding
his breath for fear of what will happen to him when the William J.
Mosely Estate is wound up? I've heard nothing else for two days. Not a
word about the poor woman, who might as well have been a shadow on the
wall of her house for all she meant to anybody until she died," she
said, fanning herself and looking at him irritably.

"She was a great woman," he said simply.

"Well, I'm just a tired woman. I spent the whole morning tacking white
pinks on an anchor design for the funeral. Then I went to the cemetery
with the procession. And all the time I heard nothing but speculation
about what she had or had not done with her money. I was just composing
myself for a little rest before going to the Civic League and Cemetery
Association at four o'clock when your messenger appeared at the door.
Now I want to know what it's all about."

"Are you very much interested in the Woman's Civic League and Cemetery
Association, Susan?" asked the Judge, by way of avoiding an answer.

"Certainly not! It's a nuisance. But the women of this town must do
something. They have caught the public-spirit infection, and they show
it like little meddlesome girls, childishly. Have you seen the
nasturtium beds they've planted around the railroad station? That's
feminine civic enterprise! Last week they had a committee appointed to
see the mayor about keeping the cuspidors clean in the courthouse! And
the cemetery! It's the livest-looking place in Jordantown, more things
living and growing there than anywhere else. Even more women. They are
there every day, gardening above the dust of the dead!"

"Why do you belong to it?" he asked.

"In self-defence, of course! There is to be a report from a committee
about things they want changed at the cemetery this afternoon, and I'm
not on the committee because one object of it is to condemn the
arbor-vitae trees in my lot there. They want to cut them down. Now I will
not have it! And I must be there at four o'clock to tell them so!" She
began to fan herself vigorously.

"Listen to me, Susan; let the non-essential go. Don't be the occasion of
a split in your ranks for the sake of a couple o