: Grandmother's Disappointment]

"Yes," Matilda agreed with a scornful glance, "it is slick, what there
is of it."

Grandmother's head burned pink through her scanty white locks and her
eyes flashed dangerously. Somewhat frightened, Matilda hastened to
change the subject.

"She wears her hair like mine."

"She?" repeated Grandmother, pricking up her ears, "Who's she?"

"You know--the company up to Marshs'."

"Who was tellin' you? The milkman, or his wife?"

"None of 'em," answered Matilda, mysteriously. Then, lowering her voice
to a whisper, she added: "I seen her myself!"

"When?" Grandmother demanded. "You been up there, payin' back your own
call?"

"She went by here yesterday," said Matilda, hurriedly.

"What was I doin'?" the old lady inquired, resentfully.

"One time you was asleep and one time you was readin'."

"What? Do you mean to tell me she went by here twice and you ain't never
told me till now?"

"When you've been readin'," Matilda rejoined, with secret delight,
"you've always told me and Rosemary too that you wan't to be disturbed
unless the house took afire. Ain't she, Rosemary?"

[Sidenote: If Anything's Important]

"What?" asked the girl, placing a saucer of stewed prunes at each place
and drawing up the three chairs.

"Ain't she always said she didn't want to be disturbed when she was
readin'?" She indicated Grandmother by an inclination of her frowsy
head.

"I don't believe any of us like to be interrupted when we're reading,"
Rosemary replied, tactfully. She disliked to "take sides," and always
avoided it whenever possible.

"There," exclaimed Matilda, triumphantly.

"And the other time?" pursued Grandmother. Her eyes glittered and her
cheeks burned with dull, smouldering fires.

"You was asleep."

"I could have been woke up, couldn't I?"

"You could have been," Matilda replied, after a moment's thought, "but
when you've been woke up I ain't never liked to be the one what did it."

"If it's anything important," Grandmother observed, as she began to eat,
"I'm willin' to be interrupted when I'm readin', or to be woke up when
I'm asleep, and if that woman ever goes by the house again, I want to
be told of it, and I want you both to understand it, right here and
now."

[Sidenote: Have You Seen Her?]

"What woman?" queried Rosemary. She had been busy in the kitchen and had
not grasped the subject of the conversation, though the rumbling of it
had reached her from afar.