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Macy, too. There was a while when it looked to me 's if swoopin' down 'n' then pinnin' flat c'u'd catch anythin', 't Mrs. Macy'd have the deacon, she was so everlastingly on hand. Why, I never walked by his house but I met her, 'n' that was far too often to ever by any chance be called a' accident. But she was too open; my own experience is 't bein' frank 'n' free is time throwed away on men. If anythin' serious is to be done with a man, it's got to be done from behind a woodpile. I had some little dealin's with men in the marryin' line once, 'n' I found 'em very shy; tamin' gophers is sleepin' in the sun beside grabbin' a man 's dead against bein' grabbed. I don't say 's it can't be done, but I will say 't it's hard in the first 'n' harder in the last, when you've got him 'n' he's got you, like the minister's got his wife."

"But Mrs. Macy ain't—" protested Mrs. Lathrop.

"No; 'n' it's her own fault, too. He told me this afternoon's the way she smiled on him right in the first days made the marrow run up 'n' down his back. He said he c'u'd 'a' stood lots o' things, but no human bein' but gets mad bein' forever smiled at. Then she knit him things. He says she knit him a pair o' snap-on slippers 's Heaven 'll surely forgive him if he ever see the like of. He said they stuck out 's far behind 's in front, 'n' all in the world 't he c'u'd do was to sit perfectly still in the middle of 'em 'n' content himself with viewin' 'em 's slippers. But he says the worst was, she cooked him things; he says he won't say what he's paid young Dr. Brown for advice regardin' things 's she's cooked him, not to speak o' that time he cut himself so bad pryin' at one o' her undercrusts. 'N', just between you 'n' me, Mrs. Lathrop, he says it's a secret 's he will carry to his grave unsealed she give him a crock o' gherkins on his birthday, with a pair o' buttonhole scissors at the bottom.

"He said he jus' felt he'd enjoy to have the revenge o' stayin' single. But he said it didn't take him long to see 's stayin' single is a privilege 's no woman's goin' to allow to a man whose wife's dead. He says the way he's been chased 's all but killin'. He says there's Mrs. Allen firin' Polly at him when he goes over there for his dinner, 'n' the minister tellin' him every Sunday 'n' prayer-meetin' how Liza Em'ly is shootin' up. He says Gran'ma Mullins is ferever referrin' to his youth, 'n' Mrs. Macy is ferever smilin'. He says he could easy keep his house alone,—he says he understands a house from moth-balls to quicklime,—but they won't let him. He says he's not only town property, but he's town talk 's well. He says Mrs. Craig stopped him in the square 'n' asked him point-blank if he'd remembered to put on his flannels.

"I tell you, Mrs. Lathrop, it's plain 't that man has suffered. If you'd 'a' seen him, your heart would 'a' softened like mine did. 'N' him such a neat little bald-headed man without any wishin' o' anybody anythin'! I give him a lot o' sympathy. I told him 't I'd knowed what it was to have a lot o' folks seem bound to marry you in the teeth o' your own will. I told him the whole community was witness to how I was set upon after father's death 'n' well-nigh drove mad. He said he wished he had my grit 'n' maybe he'd make a try to fight like I did, but he said he was beat out. He said if he isn't up 'n' the smoke pourin' out o' his chimney at six sharp, all the single women in town is lined up in front to know what's happened. He says if he was married, it goes without sayin' 's they'd both be allowed to sleep in peace. He said if he lights a candle at night, he hears o' it next day. He said if he gets a letter in a strange hand, it's all over town 's some strange woman's made his acquaintance. He says the whole world feels free to dust his hat or w'isk his coat if he stops to chat a minute. He says, such bein' the case, he's made up his mind 't he's got to get married. He says he's considered very carefully. He says he knows jus' the kind o' woman. He says he's been fretted, 'n' he don't never want to be fretted no more."

Miss Clegg paused, as if the crisis had arrived. She surveyed her friend with a meaning eye, and Mrs. Lathrop rather shrunk together and endeavored to look courageous.

"Up to now 's been all preparin' your mind. Do you feel prepared? Are you ready?"

"Yes, I—" gasped the victim.

"Left to myself, I sh'u'd 'a' waited till mornin', but he wanted you to know to-night. He knows 's I'm your dearest