sly warm, there was sufficient gossip
for the thoughtful. To the rapt mind of Miss Selina Tibbs came a
delicious moment of comparison: precisely the same conditions prevailed
in Plattville.

Not unduly might Miss Selina lay this flattering unction to her soul,
and well might the "Herald" declare that "Carlow events were crowding
thick and fast." The congressional representative of the district was
to deliver a lecture at the court-house; a circus was approaching the
county-seat, and its glories would be exhibited "rain or shine"; the
court had cleared up the docket by sitting to unseemly hours of the
night, even until ten o'clock--one farmer witness had fallen asleep
while deposing that he "had knowed this man Hender some eighteen
year"--and, as excitements come indeed when they do come, and it seldom
rains but it pours, the identical afternoon of the lecture a strange
lady descended from the Rouen Accommodation and was greeted on the
platform by the wealthiest citizen of the county. Judge Briscoe, and
his daughter, Minnie, and (what stirred wonder to an itch almost beyond
endurance) Mr. Fisbee! and they then drove through town on the way to
the Briscoe mansion, all four, apparently, in a fluster of pleasure and
exhilaration, the strange lady engaged in earnest conversation with Mr.
Fisbee on the back seat.

Judd Bennett had had the best stare at her, but, as he immediately fell
into a dreamy and absent state, little satisfaction could be got from
him, merely an exasperating statement that the stranger seemed to have
a kind of new look to her. However, by means of Miss Mildy Upton, a
domestic of the Briscoe household, the community was given something a
little more definite. The lady's name was Sherwood; she lived in Rouen;
and she had known Miss Briscoe at the eastern school the latter had
attended (to the feverish agitation of Plattville) three years before;
but Mildy confessed her inadequacy in the matter of Mr. Fisbee. He had
driven up in the buckboard with the others and evidently expected to
stay for supper Mr. Tibbs, the postmaster (it was to the postoffice
that Miss Upton brought her information) suggested, as a possible
explanation, that the lady was so learned that the Briscoes had invited
Fisbee on the ground of his being the only person in Plattville they
esteemed wise enough to converse with her; but Miss Tibbs wrecked her
brother's theory by mentioning the name of Fisbee's chief.

"You see, Solomon," sh