sudden!"
more vividly illustrated.

Susan sat bolt upright opposite and surveyed her friend's emotion with
an expression of calm and interested neutrality.

After a while Mrs. Lathrop's eyes began to open and her mouth to close;
she gathered her hands into her lap, and her feet under her skirt,
saying weakly:

"Well, I never hear nothin' to beat--"

"I ain't surprised 't your takin' it to heart like that," said the
imparter of news. "I may tell you in confidence 't I was nigh to laid out
myself in the first hearin' of it. I looked upon it jus' as you did, an'
jus' as anybody in their common senses naturally would. It was n't no
more 'n was to be expected that me, bein' neat like himself an'
unmarried, too, sh'd 'a' struck him 's just about what he was lookin'
for. I 'm younger 'n Gran'ma Mullins 'n' Mrs. Macy, an' older 'n 'Liza
Em'ly an' Polly Ann. I 've got property, 'n' nobody can 't say 's I have
n't always done my duty by whatever crossed my path, even if was nothin'
but snow in the winter. All the time 't he was talkin' I was thinkin',
'n' I tell you, Mrs. Lathrop, it's pretty hard work to smile 'n' look
interested in a man's meanderin's while you 're tryin' to figure on how
you can will your money safe away from him. I was n't calc'latin' on
havin' Deacon White get any of my money, I c'n tell you, an' I meant to
have that understood right in the beginnin'. Maybe he would n't 'a' liked
it; but if he had n't 'a' liked it, he c'd 'a' give me right square up.
Lord knows, I never was after him with no net; I don't set about gettin'
what I want that way. 'N' I never for one minute have thought o' wantin'
the deacon. I 'm used to lookin' everythin' square in the face, 'n' no
one as has got eyes could look the deacon in the face 'n' want him. 'N'
the more they turned him round 'n' round, the less they'd want him. It
ain't in reason's the friend could be found to deny 't he 's as
bow-legged as they make 'em. An' then there's his ears! A woman could,
maybe, overlook the bow-legs if she held the newspaper high enough; but I
don't believe 's any one in kingdom come could overlook them ears. Mr.
Kimball says Belgian hares an' Deacon White 's both designed to be
catched by their ears. I looked at him to-day 'n' figured on maybe tryin'
to tame 'em in a little with a tape nightcap; but then I says to myself,
I says: 'No; if he 's to be my husband, I 'll probably have so much to
overlook that them ears 'll soon be mice to th