minutes, and then he hurried out to the gate and was off.

The buggy was hardly out of sight up the road when Miss Clegg emerged
from her kitchen door, her face bearing an imprint of deep and
thorough disgust.

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I don't think much o' _that_ young man," she
announced in a tone of unmitigated disapproval; "'peared to me like he
was in a hurry to get done with father 's quick 's he could just so 's
to be back beside Amelia Fitch. I 'd venture a guess that 'f you was
to ask him this minute he 's forgot every word I said to him already.
I asked him to set some sort of a figger on father, 'n' he would n't
so much 's set down himself. Stood on one leg 'n' backed towards the
door every other word, 'n' me, father's only child, standin' there at
his mercy. Said 't last 's he _might_ die to-morrow 'n' _might_ live
twenty years. I tell you my patience pretty near went at that. I don't
call such a answer no answer a _tall_. I 've often thought both them
things myself, 'n' me no doctor. Particularly about the twenty years.
Father's lived seventy-five years--I must say 't to my order o'
thinkin' he's pretty well set a-goin', 'n' that the life he leads
ain't drainin' his vitality near 's much 's it's drainin' mine."

Miss Clegg stopped and shook her head impatiently.

"I d'n' know when I 've felt as put out 's this. 'N' me with so much
faith in doctors too. It's a pretty sad thing, Mrs. Lathrop, when all
the comfort you c'n get out of a man is the thinkin' 't perhaps God in
his mercy has made him a fool. I had a good mind to tell that very
thing to Mrs. Brown's son, but I thought maybe he'd learn better
later. Anyway I 'm goin' right ahead with my marriage. It'll have to