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Mrs. Jilkins made. An' there's lots o' people 's ain't had no chance yet to ask me if it's true about you an' the deacon."

"When's he a-com—?" Mrs. Lathrop asked.

"On the five-o'clock; an' he said 's he sh'u'd come straight up here to settle it all. I s'pose you've turned the subjeck round an' round an' upside down till you've come out jus' where I said you would at first."

"I guess I'll take—"

"I would 'f I was you. Mr. Kimball says Deacon White's as good help 's any woman can hope to get hold o' in a place this size, an' I guess he's hit that nail square on top. I don't see but what, when all's said an' done, you can really take a deal o' comfort havin' him so handy. He likes to keep things clean, an' you'll never let him get a chance to go to Satan empty-handed. An' we can always send him to bed when we want to talk, 'cause bein' 's he'll be your husband, we won't never have to fuss with considerin' his feelin's any."

"I—" said Mrs. Lathrop, thoughtfully.

"O' course there wouldn't be nothin' very romantic in marryin' the deacon; an' yet, when you come right square down to it, I don't see no good an' sufficient reasons f'r long hair bein' romantic an' big ears not. Anyway, I sh'u'd consider 't a man's can clean a sink, an' will clean a sink, was a sight safer to marry 'n one 's whose big hit was standin' up the ends o' his mustache. An' besides, you can have the man with the sink, an' the man with the mustache wouldn't even turn round to look at you the first time."

"I—" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Romance is a nice thing in its place. I've had my own romances,—four on 'em, an' not many women can say that an' still be unmarried, I guess. I've lived an' I've loved, as the books say; an' I've survived, as I say myself; an' you can believe me or not, jus' as you please, Mrs. Lathrop, but I ain't got no feelin' toward you this night but pity. I wouldn't be you if I could—not now an' not never. I'd really liefer be the deacon, an' Heaven knows 't he's got little enough to look forward to hereafter."

"I—" expostulated Mrs. Lathrop.

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, if you keep me here much longer, I sha'n't get down-town this afternoon; an' when you think how near Mrs. Jilkins 's comin' to bein' related to you, it certainly will look very strange to the community."

As she spoke. Miss Clegg rapidly prepared herself for the street, and with the last words she went toward the door.

"If the deacon gets here afore I come back," she said, pausing with her hand on the knob, "you'd better say 's what he told me yesterday in confidence an' what I told him in consequence is still a secret; it 'll be pleasanter f'r you both so."

"I—" said Mrs. Lathrop.

"Good-by," said Susan.

Mrs. Lathrop slept some that afternoon and rocked more. She experienced no very marked flutterings in the region of her heart; indeed, she was astonished herself at the calmness of her sensations.

The deacon had not come when Susan returned. Susan looked somewhat puzzled.

"Anybody been here since me?" she inquired, not facing her friend, but examining the stovepipe with interest.

"No; no—"

"Mrs. Jilkins is all safe," she said next.

"I'm so—"

"That automobile run 'way past Cherry Pond, an' their hired man see her ridin' by an' made after her on a mule. The gasolene give out before the mule did, so he hauled her home, an' the man in the cap come an' took the automobile back to town."

"So it's all—"

"They all landed over at the drug-store an' got in an' started out fresh. Mr. Jilkins settled f'r the five hundred, an' they went off feelin' real friendly. They run out across the square, an' then—" Susan hesitated. "You got a shock yesterday," she said, still not looking at her friend, but speaking sympathetically, "an' it seems too bad to give you another to-day; but you'll have to know—"

"Heaven pro—" cried Mrs. Lathrop.

"They run over the deacon comin' out o' the station. They didn't see him, an' he didn't see them. He ain't dead."

Mrs. Lathrop was silent.

"Mrs. Allen took him home. Of course that means Polly 'll get him in the end."

Mrs. Lathrop was silent for a long time. Finally she said very deliberately:

"Maybe it's just as—"

"It's better," said her friend, with decision; "f'r the man settled with the deacon f'r fifteen hundred."