it was a day or two after the most satisfactory arrangement between the thorpedykes, mrs. cliff, and mr. burke had been concluded, and before it had been made public, that miss nancy shott came to call upon mrs. cliff.[pg 129]

as she walked, stiff as a grenadier, and almost as tall, she passed by the new building without turning her head even to glance at it, and going directly up to the front door of the old house, she rang the bell.

as mrs. cliff's domestic household were all engaged in the new part of the building, the bell was not heard, and after waiting nearly a minute, miss shott rang it again with such vigor that the door was soon opened by a maid, who informed her that mrs. cliff was not at home, but that miss croup was in.

"very well," said miss shott, "i'll see her!" and, passing the servant, she entered the old parlor. the maid followed her.

"there's no fire here," she said. "won't you please walk into the other part of the house, which is heated? miss croup is over there."

"no!" said miss shott, seating herself upon the sofa. "this suits me very well, and willy croup can come to me here as well as anywhere else!"

presently willy arrived, wishing very much that she also had been out.

"do come over to the other parlor, miss shott!" said she. "there's no furnace heat here because mrs. cliff didn't want the old house altered, and we use this room so little that we haven't made a fire."

"i thought you had the chimney put in order!" said miss shott, without moving from her seat. "doesn't it work right?"

willy assured her visitor that the chimney was in good condition so far as she knew, and repeated her[pg 130] invitation to come into a warmer room, but to this miss shott paid no attention.

"it's an old saying," said she, "that a bad chimney saves fuel!—i understand that you've all been to new york shopping?"

"yes," said willy, laughing. "it was a kind of shopping, but that's not exactly what i'd call it!" and perceiving that miss shott intended to remain where she was, she took a seat.

"well, of course," said miss shott, "everybody's got to act according to their own judgments and consciences! if i was going to buy winter things, i'd do what i could to help the business of my own town, and if i did happen to want anything i couldn't get here, i'd surely go to harrington, where the people might almost be called neighbors!"

willy laughed outright. "oh, miss shott," she said, "you couldn't buy the things we bought, in harrington! i don't believe they could be found in boston!"

"i was speaking about myself," said miss nancy. "i could find anything i wanted in harrington, and if my wants went ahead of what they had there, i should say that my wants were going too far and ought to be curbed! and so you took those poor old thorpedyke women with you. i expect they must be nearly fagged out. i don't see how the oldest one ever stood being dragged from store to store all over new york, as she must have been! she's a pretty old woman and can't be expected to stand even what another woman, younger than she is, but old enough, and excited by having[pg 131] money to spend, can stand! it's a wonder to me that you brought her back alive!"

"miss eleanor came back a great deal better than she was when she left!" exclaimed willy, indignantly. "she'll tell you, if you ask her, that that visit to new york did her a great deal of good!"

"no, she won't!" said miss shott, "for she don't speak to me. it's been two years since i had anything to do with her!"

willy knew all about the quarrel between the thorpedyke ladies and nancy, and wished to change the subject.

"don't you want to go and look at the new part of the house?" she said. "perhaps you'd like to see the things we've bought in new york, and it's cold here!"

to this invitation and the subsequent remark miss shott paid no attention. she did not intend to give willy the pleasure of showing her over the house, and it was not at all necessary, for she had seen nearly everything in it.

during the absence of mrs. cliff she had made many visits to the house, and, as she was acquainted with the woman who had been left in charge, she had examined every room, from ground to roof, and had scrutinized and criticised the carpets as they had been laid and the furniture as it had been put in place.

she saw that willy was beginning to shiver a little, and was well satisfied that she should feel cold. it would help take the conceit out of her. as for herself, she wore a warm cloak and did not mind a cold room.[pg 132]

"i'm told," she said, "that mrs. cliff's putting up a new stable. what was the matter with the old one?"

"it wasn't big enough," said willy.

"it holds two horses, don't it, and what could anybody want more than that, i'd like to know!"

willy was now getting a little out of temper.

"that's not enough for mrs. cliff," she said. "she's going to have a nice carriage and a pair of horses, and a regular coachman, not andrew marks!"

"well!" said miss shott, and for a few moments she sat silent. then she spoke. "i suppose mrs. cliff's goin' to take boarders."

"boarders!" cried willy. "what makes you say such a thing as that?"

"if she isn't," said miss shott, "i don't see what she'll do with all the rooms in that new part of the house."

"she's goin' to live in it," said willy. "that's what she's goin' to do with it!"

"boarders are very uncertain," remarked miss shott, "and just as likely to be a loss as a profit. mr. williams tried it at the hotel summer after summer, and if he couldn't make anything, i don't see how mrs. cliff can expect to."

"she doesn't expect to take boarders, and you know it!" said willy.

miss shott folded her hands upon her lap.

"it's goin' to be a dreadful hard winter. i never did see so many acorns and chestnuts, and there's more cedar berries on the trees than i've ever known in all my life![pg 133] i expect there'll be awful distress among the poor, and when i say 'poor' i don't mean people that's likely to suffer for food and a night's lodging, but respectable people who have to work hard and calculate day and night how to make both ends meet. these're the folks that're goin' to suffer in body and mind this winter; and if people that's got more money than they know what to do with, and don't care to save up for old age and a rainy day, would think sometimes of their deserving neighbors who have to pinch and suffer when they're going round buyin' rugs that must have cost at least as much as twenty dollars apiece and which they don't need at all, there bein' carpet already on the floor, it would be more to their credit and benefit to their fellow-beings. but, of course, one person's conscience isn't another person's, and we've each got to judge for ourselves, and be judged afterwards!"

now willy leaned forward in her chair, and her eyes glistened. as her body grew colder, so did her temper grow warmer.

"if it's mrs. cliff you're thinkin' about, nancy shott," said she, "i'll just tell you that you're as wrong as you can be! there isn't a more generous and a kinder person in this whole town than mrs. cliff is, and she isn't only that way to-day, but she's always been so, whether she's had little or whether she's had much!"

"what did she ever do, i'd like to know!" said miss nancy. "she's lined her own nest pretty well, but what's she ever done for anybody else—"

"now, nancy shott," said willy, "you know she's[pg 134] been doin' for other people all her life whenever she could! she's done for you more than once, as i happen to know,—and she's done for other neighbors and friends. and, more than that, she's gone abroad to do good, and that's more than anybody else in this town's done, as i know of!"

"she didn't go to south america to do good to anybody but herself," coolly remarked the visitor.

"i'm not thinking of that!" said willy. "she went there on business, as everybody knows! but you remember well enough when she was in the city, and i was with her, when the dreadful cholera times came on! everybody said that there wasn't a person who worked harder and did more for the poor people who were brought to the hospital than sarah did.

"she worked for them night and day; before they were dead and after they were dead! i did what i could, but it wasn't nothin' to what she did! both of us had been buyin' things, and makin' them up for ourselves, for cotton and linen goods was so cheap then. if it hadn't been for the troubles which came on, we'd had enough to last us for years! but sarah cliff isn't the kind of woman to keep things for herself when they're wanted by others, and when she had given everything that she had to those poor creatures at the hospitals, she took my things without as much as takin' the trouble to ask me, for in times like that she isn't the woman to hesitate when she thinks she's doin' what ought to be done, and at one time, in that hospital, there was eleven corpses in my night-gowns!"[pg 135]

"horrible!" exclaimed miss shott, rising to her feet. "it would have killed me to think of such a thing as that!"

"well, if it would have killed you," said willy, "there was another night-gown left."

"if you're going to talk that way," said miss shott, "i might as well go. i supposed that when i came here i would at least have been treated civilly!"