We Girls: a Home Story by A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney
page 10 of 215 (04%)
page 10 of 215 (04%)
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very good of you, and we're much obliged to you, as far as it goes."
It was only just as he got up to leave that he said the real thing. When there was one, he always kept it to the last. "Your lease is up here in May, isn't it, Mrs. Stephen?" "Yes, sir." "I'm going to move over that Beaman house next month, as soon as the around settles. I thought it might suit you, perhaps, to come and live in it. It would be handier about a good many things than it is now. Stephen might do something to his piece, in a way of small farming. I'd let him have the rent for three years. You can talk it over." He turned round and walked right out. Nobody thanked him or said a word. We were too much surprised. Mother spoke first; after we had hushed up Stephen, who shouted. I shall call her "mother," now; for it always seems as if that were a woman's real name among her children. Mr. Holabird was apt to call her so himself. She did not altogether like it, always, from him. She asked him once if "Emily" were dead and buried. She had tried to keep her name herself, she said; that was the reason she had not given it to either of her daughters. It was a good thing to leave to a grandchild; but she could not do without it as long as she lived. "We could keep a cow!" said mother. |
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