the preparation of the meal as if it were not the ten
thousandth of its kind which she had cooked and eaten. As she hustled
and bustled here and there, her manner seemed even more sprightly than
usual; and it was only occasionally, when her glance fell upon the light
shining across from her friend's kitchen window opposite, that her
cheerfulness knew any diminution. But there seemed to be some sad
influence in the effect of the rays of Mrs. Lathrop's lamp on this
particular night; and even if its effect on Susan was merely transitory,
it was not the less marked each time that it occurred.

Once, just as she was carrying the tea-pot from the stove to the table,
she voiced her thoughts aloud.

"I shall have to tell her to-night, so I may 's well make up my mind to
it," she said firmly; and then, after drawing up a chair by making a
hook out of one of her feet, she sat down and sought strength for the
ordeal in a more than ordinarily hearty supper.

It was a bleak, cold night in early November, and the wind whistled
drearily outside. There was a chill atmosphere everywhere, and a hint of
coming winter.

"I shall wear my cap an' my cardigan jacket to go over there," the
neighborly disposed Susan reflected as she carefully drank the last of
the tea. "Dear, dear! but it's goin' to be a terrible shock to her, poor
thing!"

Then she arose and carefully and scrupulously put the kitchen back into
its customary order. Having removed the last trace of any one's ever
having cooked or eaten there, she lighted a candle and sought her wraps
in the icy upper regions of the house. As she passed the parlor door she
shivered involuntarily.

"I expect he was cold," she murmured; "I know I was. But I could n't see
my way to sittin' in the kitchen with a caller: I never was one to do
nothin' improper, an' I was n't goin' to begin at my age."

Then she went upstairs and got out the cap and jacket. It was a man's
cap, with ear-tabs, and not at all in keeping with the fair Susan's
features; but she gave no heed to such matters and tied it on with two
firm jerks.

"I jus' do hope," she ejaculated as she struggled into the cardigan, "'t
she won't faint. It'll surely come very sudden on her, too, an' all my
talk 's to the advantage o' stayin' unmarried, an' the times an' times I
've said as we was always goin' to stay jus' so--"

The termination of the jacket-buttoning terminated the soliloquy also.
Miss Clegg went downstairs and warmed