him in his
old ways. Ann, after her day of crushed apathy, aroused herself
somewhat. When the Squire, the lawyer, and Doctor Prescott came the
next morning, she kept them waiting outside while she put on her best
cap. She had a view of the road from her rocking-chair, and when she
saw the three gentlemen advancing with a slow curve of progress
towards her gate, which betokened an entrance, she called sharply to
Elmira, who was washing dishes, "Go into the bedroom and get my best
cap, quick," at the same time twitching off the one upon her head.

When poor little Elmira turned and stared, her pretty face quite
pale, thinking her mother beside herself, she made a fierce, menacing
gesture with her nervous elbow, and spoke again, in a whisper, lest
the approaching guests hear: "Why don't you start? Take this old cap
and get my best one, quick!" And the little girl scuttled into the
bedroom just as the first knock came on the door. Ann kept the three
dignitaries waiting until she adjusted her cap to her liking, and the
knocks had been several times repeated before she sent the trembling
Elmira to admit them and usher them into the best parlor, whither she
followed, hitching herself through the entry in her chair, and
disdainfully refusing all offers of assistance. She even thrust out
an elbow repellingly at the Squire, who had sprung forward to her
aid.

"No, thank you, sir," said she; "I don't need any help; I always go
around the house so. I ain't helpless."

Ann, when she had brought her chair to a stand, sat facing the three
callers, each of whose salutations she returned with a curtly polite
bow. She had a desperate sense of being at bay, and that the hands of
all these great men, whose supremacy she acknowledged with the futile
uprearing of any angry woman, were against her. She eyed the lawyer,
Eliphalet Means, with particular distrust. She had always held all
legal proceedings as a species of quagmire to entrap the innocent and
unwary. She watched while the lawyer took some documents from his bag
and laid them on the table. "I won't sign a thing, nohow," she avowed
to herself, and shut her mouth tight.

Squire Merritt discovered that besides dealing with his own scruples
he had to overcome his beneficiary's.

It took a long time to convince Ann that she was not being
overreached and cheated. She seemed absolutely incapable of
understanding the transfer of the mortgage note from Doctor Prescott
to Squire Merri