Bumpuses."

"What can you do?" asked Edward. "You can't order him out of the house.
It's better for him to come here. And you can't stop Lise from going with
him--she's earning her own money...."

They had talked over the predicament before, and always came to the same
impasse. In the privacy of the kitchen Hannah paused suddenly in her
energetic rubbing of a plate and with supreme courage uttered a question.

"Janet, do you calculate he means anything wrong?"

"I don't know what he means," Janet replied, unwilling to give Mr. Wiley
credit for anything, "but I know this, that Lise is too smart to let him
take advantage of her."

Hannah ruminated. Cleverness as the modern substitute for feminine virtue
did not appeal to her, but she let it pass. She was in no mood to quarrel
with any quality that would ward off disgrace.

"I don't know what to make of Lise--she don't appear to have any
principles...."

If the Wiley affair lasted longer than those preceding it, this was
because former suitors had not commanded automobiles. When Mr. Wiley lost
his automobile he lost his luck--if it may be called such. One April
evening, after a stroll with Eda, Janet reached home about nine o'clock
to find Lise already in their room, to remark upon the absence of Mr.
Wiley's picture from the frame.