you. I'll tell you why
I took Mr. Phillips. He came to supper with George the other night and
stayed all the evenin'. He's one of the most interestin' men I ever met
in my life. Not any more interestin' than you are, of course," she
added, loyally, "but in--in a different way."

"Um ... yes. I shouldn't wonder."

"Yes, he is. And he liked my supper, and said so. Ate some of everything
and praised it, and was just as--as common and everyday and sociable,
not a mite proud or--like that."

"Why in the devil should he be?"

"Why--why, I don't know why he shouldn't. Lots of folks who know as much
as he does and have been everywhere and known the kind of people he
knows--they would be stuck up--yes, and are. Look at Cap'n Elkhanah
Wingate and his wife."

"I don't want to look at 'em. How do you know how much this Phillips
knows?"

"How do I _know_? Why, Sears, you ought to hear him talk. I never heard
such talk. The children just--just hung on his words, as they say. And
he was so nice to them. And Joel and George Kent they think he's the
greatest man they ever saw. Oh, all hands in Bayport like him."

"Humph! When he was here before, teachin' singin' school, he wasn't such
a Grand Panjandrum. At least, I never heard that he was."

"Sears, you don't like him, do you? I'm real surprised. Yes, and--and
sorry. Why don't you like him?"

Her brother laughed. "I didn't say I didn't like him, Sarah," he
replied. "Besides, what difference would one like more or less make? I
don't know him very well."

"But he likes you. Why, he said he didn't know when he had met a man who
gave him such an impression of--of strength and character as you did. He
said that right at our supper table. I tell you I was proud when he said
it about my brother."

So Sears had not the heart to utter more skepticism. He encouraged Sarah
to tell more of her arrangements with the great man. He was, it
appeared, to have not only the bedroom which Sears had occupied, but
also the room adjoining.

"One will be his bedroom," explained Mrs. Macomber, "and the other his
sittin' room, sort of. His little suite, he calls 'em. He is movin' the
rest of his things in to-day."

Seers looked at her. "Two rooms!" he exclaimed. "He's to have _two_
rooms in your house! For heaven sakes, Sarah, where do the rest of you
live; in the cellar? Goin' to let the children sleep in the cistern?"

She explained. It was a complicated process, but she had worked it out.