n, sinking her voice to a loud,
confidential whisper, "and I don't believe you've any idea how much she
took with her. I fear you've been robbed in all these vicissitudes.
Men never know what's in a house. They need caretakers; respecterble
women, that would sooner cut out their tongues than purloin. How happy
is the change which has been affected! How could you abide in the
house with such a person as that Bridget Malony?"

"Well, well, Mrs. Mumpson! She abode with herself. I at least had
this room in peace and quietness."

"Of course, of course! A person so utterly unrespecterble would not
think of entering THIS apartment; but then you had to meet her, you
know. You could not act as if she was not, when she was, and there
being so much of her, too. She was a monstrous-looking person. It's
dreadful to think that such persons belong to our sex. I don't wonder
you feel as you do about it all. I can understand you perfectly. All
your senserbleness was offended. You felt that your very home had
become sacrilegious. Well, now, I suppose she said awful things to
you?"

Holcroft could not endure this style of inquisition and comment another
second longer. He rose and said, "Mrs. Mumpson, if you want to know
just what she said and did, you must go and ask her. I'm very tired.
I'll go out and see that the stock's all right, and then go to bed."

"Oh, certainly, certainly!" ejaculated the widow. "Repose is nature's
sweet rester, says the poet. I can see how recalling those dreadful
scenes with those peculiar females--" But he was gone.

In passing out, he caught sight of Jane whisking back into the kitchen.
"She's been listening," he thought. "Well, I'll go to town tomorrow
afternoon, get a stove for my room upstairs, and stuff the keyhole."

He went to the barn and looked with envy at the placid cows and quiet
horses. At last, having lingered as long as he could, he returned to
the kitchen. Jane had washed and put away the supper dishes after a
fashion, and was now sitting on the edge of a chair in the farthest
corner of the room.

"Take this candle and go to your mother," he said curtly. Then he
fastened the doors and put out the lamp. Standing for an instant at
the parlor entrance, he added, "Please rake up the fire and put out
the light before you come up. Good night."

"Oh, certainly, certainly! We'll look after everything just as if it
was our own. The sense of strangeness will soon pass--" Bu