ing and would be so obstinate and ugly
that she'd have to be punished just like a child! Isn't that
awful! But you think it isn't true!"

"Think! I know it isn't true! not a single word of it!" Polly was
too excited to heed Miss Sterling's warning pinch.

"I never saw anything out of the way in her," attested Miss
Mullaly. "She has always appeared to me like a very cultured
woman."

"She is a perfect lady," asserted Mrs. Winslow Teed.

"Yes, she is!" agreed Miss Castlevaine. "I guess Miss Sniffen's
the one that's losing her mind--huh!"

"Is she as bad as ever?" queried Mrs. Tenney anxiously.

"Worse!" declared Miss Major.

"We don't have pie or pudding now--ever!" put in Miss Crilly
eagerly. "And we can't talk at table, only just to ask for things!"

"Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Tenney. "What does possess her!"

"Seven devils, I guess!" laughed Miss Crilly.

"Better put it seven hundred and seven!" flashed Polly.

They laughed, and the talk went on. Miss Sterling watched the
hostess. She seemed years older than bright, cheery Mrs. Dick of
the Home. Sometimes she let the talk pass her by, or she only
flung in a bitter little speech. In the course of the afternoon,
when the guests had wandered away from the dreary "front room" to
the barn, the hennery, the garden, the orchard, Mrs. Tenney
contrived to gather together her special cronies, Mrs. Albright,
Miss Crilly, Miss Sterling, and Polly.

"Come inside! I want to talk with you," she told them.

"Say," she began, in lowered voice, "do you s'pose there's any
chance in Miss Sniffen's taking me back?"

Astonishment was plain on the faces before her.

"Oh, I s'pose you think that's queer!" She laughed nervously. "But
I just can't live here any longer! I was the biggest fool to marry
that man! I thought I was going to have a good home and plenty to
eat and to wear. We do have enough to eat--and good enough, but,
my! he hasn't bought me anything except one gingham apron since I
came, and he growled over that! He's the limit for stinginess!
When I was at the Home I used to say I'd rather live in an old
kitchen if 't was mine, and now I've got the old kitchen I'd
exchange back again in a jiffy! Do you s'pose she'd take me!"

"Do you mean to--" hesitated Mrs. Albright.

"Yes, I mean to run away from the old man! I know you're shocked;
but you haven't lived with Serono Tenney! He'll freeze me out next
winter, sure as fate! I'll have to shut up t