ped away, an'--"

"Didn't I tell you to hush?" Mrs. Henley commanded, in a guarded tone.
"You go set down and be quiet for once in your life. You've said enough
about this thing."

Henley saw the old woman stand staring blankly for a moment, and then
she came back to him in the half-darkness and stood mutely eying him
from beneath the black poke-bonnet. Leaving her, he went into the
dining-room, where a lamp was shedding yellow rays over the meal his
wife had ready for him. He sat down in his accustomed place, and Mrs.
Henley promptly brought his coffee.

"It must have been powerful hot on the Carlton road," she said. "We
mighty nigh melted here in the shade with every window and door wide
open."

"It wasn't so much hotter than common." He put sugar into his coffee,
and slowly stirred it. "I reckon moving at a brisk pace through the air
keeps you from feeling heat as much as you would if you was setting
still. We didn't start back till toward sundown."

"They had some sort of a celebration over there, didn't they?" Mrs.
Henley reached over and pushed the biscuits nearer to his plate.

"Yes, but it didn't amount to much."

"I reckon Dixie liked it. The poor girl hain't been away often."

"I think she did," Henley said. "Anyways, she acted that way all
through. She had a tiptop seat in my buggy, where she could catch first
sight of everything that happened, and she took it all in, every speck
of it, even a good dinner at the hotel."

"Oh, I see." Mrs. Henley's brow was furrowed in perplexity. She left the
room and returned in a moment with a bowl in her thin hands. "Here is
some fresh apple-butter; it's right from the spring. You can put rich
milk on it; there's plenty just from the cow."

The wrinkle remained on her brow while he helped himself liberally. She
stood and studied his profile from the lighted side. The best reader of
her facial expression in the family, had he been a witness, and he
doubtless was, as the windows were open, would have found much to rivet
his attention in the unwonted solidity of her features. Henley ate
silently for several minutes before she spoke again. Then she cleared
her voice, drew herself up more erectly, and said:

"You say Dixie set in the buggy all the time? Why, I had an idea from
something Pa dropped that she went over there to attend to some
er--business or other."

"Well, a body _might_ attend to business setting in a buggy," he said,
ambiguously and he put a spoo