o time to approach
her with diplomatic negotiations. I must go to her house on a day of
good omen.

And I went, as soon as my father could give me a week's rent to take
along. I found Mrs. Hutch in the gloom of a long, faded parlor.
Divested of the ample black coat and widow's bonnet in which I had
always seen her, her presence would have been less formidable had I
not been conscious that I was a mere rumpled sparrow fallen into the
lion's den. When I had delivered the money, I should have begun my
speech; but I did not know what came first of all there was to say.
While I hesitated, Mrs. Hutch observed me. She noticed my books, and
asked about them. I thought this was my opening, and I showed her
eagerly my Latin grammar, my geometry, my Virgil. I began to tell her
how I was to go to college, to fit myself to write poetry, and get
rich, and pay the arrears. But Mrs. Hutch cut me short at the mention
of college. She broke out with her old reproaches, and worked herself
into a worse fury than I had ever witnessed before. I was all alone in
the tempest, and a very old lady was sitting on a sofa, drinking tea;
and the tidy on the back of the sofa was sliding down.

I was so bewildered by the suddenness of the onslaught, I felt so
helpless to defend myself, that I could only stand and stare at Mrs.
Hutch. She kept on railing without stopping for breath, repeating
herself over and over. At last I ceased to hear what she said; I
became hypnotized by the rapid motions of her mouth. Then the moving
tidy caught my eye and the spell was broken. I went over to the sofa
with a decided step and carefully replaced the tidy.

It was now the landlady's turn to stare, and I stared back, surprised
at my own action. The old lady also stared, her teacup suspended under
her nose. The whole thing was so ridiculous! I had come on such a
grand mission, ready to dictate the terms of a noble peace. I was met
with anger and contumely; the dignity of the ambassador of peace
rubbed off at a touch, like the golden dust from the butterfly's wing.
I took my scolding like a meek child; and then, when she was in the
middle of a trenchant phrase, her eye fixed daggerlike on mine, I
calmly went to put the enemy's house in order! It was ridiculous, and
I laughed.

Immediately I was sorry. I wanted to apologize, but Mrs. Hutch didn't
give me a chance. If she had been harsh before, she was terrific now.
Did I come there to insult her?--she wanted to kno