r she was
angry or amused.

Now Miss Inchman's eyes behind her spectacles brightened very much as
she looked from Miss Cushing to the other members of the little party
who had constituted themselves the heirs of Mrs. Cliff. None of them
could judge from her face what she was likely to say, but they all
waited to hear what she would say. At this moment the door opened, and
Mrs. Cliff entered the parlor.

CHAPTER X

THE INTELLECT OF MISS INCHMAN

It was true that on that morning Mrs. Cliff had been standing in her
front yard looking as her best friends would not have liked her to look.
There was nothing physically the matter with her, but she was
dissatisfied and somewhat disturbed in her mind. Mr. Burke was so busy
nowadays that when he stopped in to see her it was only for a few
minutes, and Willy Croup had developed a great facility in discovering
things which ought to be attended to in various parts of the town, and
of going to attend to them with Andrew Marks to drive her.

Not only did Mrs. Cliff feel that she was left more to herself than she
liked, but she had the novel experience of not being able to find
interesting occupation. She was was glad to have servants who could
perform all the household duties, and could have done more if they had
had a chance. Still, it was unpleasant to feel that she herself could do
so little to fill up her unoccupied moments. So she put on a shawl and
went into her front yard, simply to walk about and get a little of the
fresh air. But when she went out of the door, she stood still
contemplating the front fence.

Here was a fence which had been an eyesore to her for two or three
years! She believed she had money enough to fence in the whole State,
and yet those shabby palings and posts must offend her eye every time
she came out of her door! The flowers were nearly all dead now, and she
would have had a new fence immediately, but Mr. Burke had dissuaded her,
saying that when the new dining-room was brought over from the corner
lot there would have to be a fence around the whole premises, and it
would be better to have it all done at once.

"There are so many things which I can afford just as well as not," she
said to herself, "and which I cannot do!" And it was the unmistakable
doleful expression upon her countenance, as she thought this, which was
the foundation of Miss Shott's remarks to her neighbors on the subject
of Mrs. Cliff's probable early demise.

Miss