you married her was just one o' them bally dancers. Well, that was YOUR
lookout, not mine! Jane Mackinnon ain't the kind to take everybody's
sayin' as gospil, but she kalkilates to treat folks ez she finds 'em.
When she finds 'em lyin' and deceivin'; when she finds em purtendin' one
thing and doin' another; when she finds 'em makin' fools tumble to 'em;
playing soots on their own husbands, and turnin' an honest house into a
music-hall and a fandango shop, she kicks! You hear me! Jane Mackinnon
kicks!"

"What do you mean?" said Mr. Rylands sternly.

"I mean," said Miss Mackinnon, striking her hips with the back of her
hands smartly, and accenting each word that dropped like a bullet from
her mouth with an additional blow,--"I--mean--that--your--wife--had
one--of--her--old--hangers-on--from--'Frisco--here--in--this
very--kitchen--all--the--arternoon; there! I mean that whiles she was
waitin' here for you, she was canoodlin' and cryin' over old times with
him! I saw her myself through the winder. That's what I mean, Mr. Joshua
Rylands."

"It's false! She had some poor stranger here with a lame horse. She told
me so herself."

Jane Mackinnon laughed shrilly.

"Did she tell you that the poor stranger was young and pretty-faced,
with black moustarches? that his store clothes must have cost a fortin,
saying nothing of his gold-lined, broadcloth sarrapper? Did she say that
his horse was so lame that when I went to get another he wouldn't WAIT
for it? Did she tell you WHO he was?"