seated
at his desk talking to a farmer, and when he turned around and
discovered who his visitor was, he ejaculated irreverently:

"Good Lord deliver us!"

"Oh, do excuse me!" Mrs. Burke replied. "I didn't know that you were
sayin' the Litany. I'll just slip into the next room and wait till you
get through."

Whereupon she stepped into the next room, closed the door, and made
herself comfortable in a large arm-chair. There was a long table in
the middle of the room, and the walls were covered with shelves and
yellow books of a most monotonous binding. The air was musty and
close. She quietly opened one of the windows, and having resumed her
seat, she pulled a wash-rag from her leather bag and began knitting
calmly.

She waited for some time, occasionally glancing at the long table,
which was covered with what appeared to be a hopeless confusion of
letters, legal documents, and books opened and turned face downward.
Occasionally she sniffed in disgust at the general untidiness of the
place. Evidently the appearance of the table in front of her was
getting on her nerves; and so she put her knitting away as she
muttered to herself:

"I wonder Virginia don't come up here once in a while and put things
to rights. It's simply awful!" Then she began sorting the papers and
gathering them into little uniform piles by themselves. She seemed to
have no notion whatever of their possible relation to each other, but
arranged them according to their size and color in nice little
separate piles. When there was nothing else left for her to do she
resumed her knitting and waited patiently for the departure of the
farmer. The two men seemed to be having a rather warm dispute over the
interpretation of some legal contract; and if Bascom was hot-tempered
and emphatic in his language, bordering on the profane, the client was
stubborn and dull-witted and hard to convince. Occasionally she
overheard bits of the controversy which were not intended for her
ears. Bascom insisted:

"But you're not such a dum fool as to think that a contract legally
made between two parties is not binding, are you? You admit that I
have fulfilled my part, and now you must pay for the services rendered
or else I shall bring suit against you."

The reply to this was not audible, but the farmer did not seem to be
quite convinced.

After what seemed to her an interminable interval the door banged, and
she knew that Bascom was alone. She did not wait for any