aned forward, and her voice dropped a tone lower.

"It's somethin' I never thought I'd do," she whispered, "and before I
tell you, I want you to promise you'll never tell a soul."

"Of course I won't," said Mrs. Martin with gentle solemnity, and as she
promised, her thoughts went back to that period of her schoolgirl life
when every day brought its great secret, with that impressive oath: "I
cross my heart and point my finger up to God." She bent her head in a
listening way toward her caller. But the telling of a secret was too
delightful a task to be hastily dispatched, and having worked her
audience up to the desired point of interest, Mrs. Williams was in no
hurry to reach the climax of the story. She leaned back in her chair and
resumed her natural tone of voice.

"The way I happened to think there was somethin' wrong," she continued,
"was this: Anna Belle had been doin' a good deal of sewin' and
embroiderin' ever since Henry begun to keep company with her, and, all
of a sudden, she stopped work and put everything away in the bottom
bureau drawer. Well, that set me to thinkin'. If she'd put the things in
the top bureau drawer, I wouldn't have noticed it, for the top drawer is
the place where you keep the things you expect to finish and the things
you're usin' now. But when you fold a thing up and put it in the bottom
drawer, it means you haven't any use for it right now, and you don't
intend to finish it for some time to come. At first I thought that maybe
Henry and Anna Belle had had a fallin' out. But the next Wednesday night
here comes Henry just as usual, and he's never stopped comin'; but still
Anna Belle never took her things out of the bottom drawer; and the other
day I happened to pass by her room, and the door was halfway open, and I
saw her kneelin' down by the drawer, lookin' at the things and smoothin'
them down. I couldn't see her face, but I know just how she looked as
well as if I'd been in front of her instead of behind her."

Mrs. Martin gave a sympathetic murmur, wholly unheard by Mrs. Williams,
who went blithely on with her narrative.

"When your Henry comes to see my Anna Belle, Mrs. Martin, I always make
it a point to go as far away from 'em as possible, for courtin' can't be
rightly done if there's folks lookin' and listenin' around. So in the
winter time I have a fire in my room the nights Henry comes, and sit
there, and in summer I generally go out on the back porch and let Henry
and Anna