hall-door, "I never knew the old woman was crazy! And she looks
so quiet and ladylike, too."

Mrs. Manstey slept well that night, but early the next morning
she was awakened by a sound of hammering. She got to her window
with what haste she might and, looking out saw that Mrs. Black's
yard was full of workmen. Some were carrying loads of brick from
the kitchen to the yard, others beginning to demolish the old-
fashioned wooden balcony which adorned each story of Mrs. Black's
house. Mrs. Manstey saw that she had been deceived. At first
she thought of confiding her trouble to Mrs. Sampson, but a
settled discouragement soon took possession of her and she went
back to bed, not caring to see what was going on.

Toward afternoon, however, feeling that she must know the worst,
she rose and dressed herself. It was a laborious task, for her
hands were stiffer than usual, and the hooks and buttons seemed
to evade her.

When she seated herself in the window, she saw that the workmen
had removed the upper part of the balcony, and that the bricks
had multiplied since morning. One of the men, a coarse fellow
with a bloated face, picked a magnolia blossom and, after
smelling it, threw it to the ground; the next man, carrying a
load of bricks, trod on the flower in passing.

"Look out, Jim," called one of the men to another who was smoking
a pipe, "if you throw matches around near those barrels of paper
you'll have the old tinder-box burning down before you know it."
And Mrs. Manstey, leaning forward, perceived that there were