And nothing will do but I wear it on my
rheumatic finger. In fact you can't be even with the man, and I feel like
a bird afore a snake."
All the same she wouldn't let me speak a word to him. She wept a bit, and
then she began to laugh and, in fact, went on about it like a giglet wench
of twenty-five. But my firm impression continued to be that she was
suffering and growing feared of Battle, and would soon be in the doctor's
hands for her nerves, if something weren't done.
I troubled a good bit and tried to get a definite view out of her, but I
failed. Then I had a go at Bob too; but for the first time since I had
known him, he was a bit short and sharp like, and what I had to say didn't
interest him in the least. In fact he told me in so many words to mind my
own business and leave him to mind his.
Then another busy spring kept us apart a good bit, till one evening Noah
Sweet came up, all on his own, with a bit of startling news.
"I wasn't listening," he said, "and I should feel a good bit put out if
you thought I was; but passing the parlour door last Sunday, I heard the
man at her again! I catched the words, 'We're neither of us growing any
younger, Mary Blake,' and then I passed on my way. And coming back a bit
later, with my ear open, out of respect for the missis, I heard the man
kiss her--I'll swear he did--for you can't mistake the sound if once
you've heard it.
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