e_ or _not-give_ of the
things he's dealin' with?" demanded Martha. "I'm only a ignorant woman,
an' I ask for information. When you're dress-makin' you have to allow
for the seams, an' when you're makin'--well, other things, you have to
do the same thing, only spelled a little different--you have to allow
for the _seems_. Most folks don't do it, an' that's where a lot o'
trouble comes in, or so it appears to me."

Claire twisted her ring in silence, gazing down at it the while as if
the operation was, of all others, the most important and absorbing.

"We may not agree, Martha dear," she said at last, "but anyway I know
you're good, good, _good_, and I wouldn't hurt your feelings for the
world."

"Shoor! I know you wouldn't! An' they ain't hurt. Not in the least. You
got one kinder conscience an' I got another, that's all. Consciences is
like hats. One that suits one party would make another look like a guy.
You got to have your own style. You got to know what's best for you, an'
then _stick to it_!"

"And you won't object if I tell Mr. Ronald?"

"Objeck? Certainly not! Tell'm anything you like. _I_ always was fond o'
Mr. Ronald myself. I never thought he was as hard an' stern with a body
as some thinks. Some thinks he's as hard as nails, but--"

"O, I'm _sure_ he's not," cried Claire with unexpected loyalty. "His
manner may seem a little cold and proud sometimes, but I know he's very
kind and generous."

"Certaintly. So do I know it," said Mrs. Slawson. "I don't say I mayn't
be mistaken, but I have the highest opinion o' Lor--Mr. Ronald. I think
you could trust'm do the square thing, no matter what, an' if he was
kinder harsh doin' it, it's only because he expects a body to be perfect
like he is himself."

In the next room Sabina was shouting at the top of her lungs--"Come back
to ear-ring, my voornean, my voornean!"

"Ain't it a caution what lungs that child has--considerin'?" Martha
reflected. "Just hear her holler! She'd wake the dead. I wonder if she's
tryin' to beat that auta whoopin' it up outside. Have you ever noticed
them autas nowadays? Some of them has such croupy coughs, before I know
it I'm huntin' for a flannen an' a embrercation. 'Xcuse me a minit while
I go answer the bell."

A second later she returned. A step in advance of her was Mr. Ronald.

"I am lucky to find you at home, Martha," were the first words Claire
heard him say.

Martha, by dint of a little unobservable maneuvering, manage