His brother was watching the G. L. & P., which as yet
had made no offer for the mills. Once, when one of
these letters came, he submitted to his wife whether,
in the absence of any positive information that the road
wanted the property, he might not, with a good conscience,
dispose of it to the best advantage to anybody who came along.
She looked wistfully at him; it was on the rise from a
season of deep depression with him. "No, Si," she said;
"I don't see how you could do that."
He did not assent and submit, as he had done at first,
but began to rail at the unpracticality of women; and then
he shut some papers he had been looking over into his desk,
and flung out of the room.
One of the papers had slipped through the crevice of the lid,
and lay upon the floor. Mrs. Lapham kept on at her sewing,
but after a while she picked the paper up to lay it on
the desk. Then she glanced at it, and saw that it was a long
column of dates and figures, recording successive sums,
never large ones, paid regularly to "Wm. M." The dates covered
a year, and the sum amounted at least to several hundreds.
Mrs. Lapham laid the paper down on the desk, and then
she took it up again and put it into her work-basket,
meaning to give it to him. When he came in she saw him
looking absent-mindedly about for something, and then
going to work upon his papers, apparently without it.
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