hot coffee."

Mrs. Mumpson had no comprehension of a man who could be so quiet when he was
angry, and she believed that she might impress him with a due sense of the
enormity of his offense. "Mr. Holcroft, I scarcely feel that I can meet a girl
who has no more sense of decorum than to--" But Jane, striking a match,
revealed the fact that she was speaking to empty air.

Mrs. Wiggins was at last so far aroused that she was helped from the wagon and
came shivering and dripping toward the kitchen. She stood a moment in the
doorway and filled it, blinking confusedly at the light. There was an absence
of celerity in all Mrs. Wiggins' movements, and she was therefore slow in the
matter of waking up. Her aspect and proportions almost took away Mrs.
Mumpson's breath. Here certainly was much to superintend, much more than had
been anticipated. Mrs. Wiggins was undoubtedly a "peculiar female," as had
been expected, but she was so elderly and monstrous that Mrs. Mumpson felt
some embarrassment in her purpose to overwhelm Holcroft with a sense of the
impropriety of his conduct.

Mrs. Wiggins took uncertain steps toward the rocking chair, and almost crushed
it as she sat down. "Ye gives a body a cold velcome," she remarked, rubbing
her eyes.

Mrs. Mumpson had got out of her way as a minnow would shun a leviathan. "May I
ask your name?" she gasped.

"Viggins, Mrs. Viggins."

"Oh, indeed! You are a married woman?"