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panion, Mrs. Sophronisba King, lean, acidulous, suspicious of all humans and their motives save her own. Mrs. King was as curveless as a young sapling as she went around the room giving quick little jabs at the furniture with an oiled cloth, pursuing relentlessly bits of dust which had settled upon the chairs and table and mantelpiece since late afternoon.

"Heard the news about that Lizzie Stone?" she asked Mrs. Plummer. "You ain't?" she demanded incredulously when Mrs. Plummer shamefacedly admitted she had not. The possession of a juicy morsel which had not yet come to her friend's ears caused Mrs. King's skinny frame to swell with prideful importance. "Why, honey, it's all over town!"

"She always seemed to me such a nice, Christian girl—so quiet and respectable———"

"Mis' Plummer, them's the very ones who'll fool you nine times out of ten—they go to church and they's sweet as pie in the daytime—but slipping and sliding into all sorts of devilment."

Mrs. Plummer's ears seemed to stretch out from her head in her eagerness to learn the derelictions of Lizzie Stone. "Tell me what she's done. You know my heart's bad and the doctor told me I couldn't stand much excitement," she pleaded.

"You know Jerry Reed—he's head of the Royal United Order of Heavenly Reapers?"

"'Cose I do—ain't I a member of the Ladies Auxil'ry?"

"You know, Mis' Plummer, I ain't one of these no-count women who runs around town meddlin' in other folks's business—I stays at home and tends to my own bus'ness."

"'Cose you don't, Mis' King—ev'rybody knows you don't gossip. But what's Lizzie and Jerry Reed been doing?"

"I'll tell you, Mis' Plummer, though I ain't vouching for