would be a great catch for that girl, and I _think_," dropping her
voice, "her mother'd be liable to live with 'em."

"You're keeping that dark from the doctor, I s'pose?" remarked 'Zekiel.

"H'm. You needn't think I go chattering around that house the way I do
out here. I've got a great talent, if I do say it, for minding my own
business."

"Good enough," drawled 'Zekiel. "I heard tell once of a firm that made a
great fortune just doing that one thing."

"Don't you be sassy now. I've always waited on Mr. Evringham while he
ate his meals, and that's the time he'd often speak out to me about
things if he felt in the humor, so that in all these years 't isn't any
wonder if I've come to feel that his business is mine too."

"Just so," returned 'Zekiel, with a twinkle in his eye.

"It's been as plain as your nose that the interlopers don't like to have
me there. Not that they have anything special against me, but they'd
like to have someone younger and stylisher to hand them their plates.
I'll never forget one night when they'd been here about a week, and I
think Mr. Evringham had begun to suspect they were fixtures,--I'd felt
it from the first,--Mrs. Evringham said, 'Why father, does Mrs. Forbes
always wait on your table? I had supposed she was temporarily taking the
place of your butler or your waitress.'"

The housekeeper's effort to imitate the airy manner she remembered
caused her son to chuckle as he gathered up the shining harness.