"You mean your mamma is just letting him stay here a little while,"
Anna said to Julia who had followed her into the kitchen to see Miss
Annie get real mad. "No that ain't it Miss Annie. The mother was that
girl, Lily that came from Bishop's place out in the country, and she
don't want no children, and ma liked the little boy so much, she said
she'd keep him here and adopt him for her own child."

Anna, for once, was fairly dumb with astonishment and rage. The front
door slammed.

"There's ma now," cried Julia in an uneasy triumph, for she was not
quite certain in her mind which side of the question she was on.

"There's ma now, and you can ask her for yourself if I ain't told you
true."

Mrs. Lehntman came into the kitchen where they were. She was bland,
impersonal and pleasant, as it was her wont to be. Still to-day,
through this her usual manner that gave her such success in her
practice as a midwife, there shone an uneasy consciousness of guilt,
for like all who had to do with the good Anna, Mrs. Lehntman dreaded
her firm character, her vigorous judgments and the bitter fervour of
her tongue.

It had been plain to see in the six years these women were together,
how Anna gradually had come to lead. Not really lead, of course, for
Mrs. Lehntman never could be led, she was so very devious in her ways;
but Anna had come to have direction whenever she could learn what Mrs.
Lehntman meant to do before the deed was done. Now it was hard to
tell which would win out. Mrs. Lehntman had her unhearing mind and her