uniting them in a common enterprise.

"Mrs. Bolton," she said, abruptly leaving the subject at last, "I've been
thinking whether I oughtn't to do something about Mr. Peck. I don't want
him to feel that he was unwelcome to me in my house; I should like him to
feel that I approved of his having been here."

As this was not a question, Mrs. Bolton, after the fashion of country
people, held her peace, and Annie went on--

"Does he never come to see you?"

"Well, he was here last night," said Mrs. Bolton.

"Last _night_!" cried Annie. "Why in the world didn't you let me
know?"

"I didn't know as you wanted to know," began Mrs. Bolton, with a sullen
defiance mixed with pleasure in Annie's reproach. "He was out there in my
settin'-room with his little girl."

"But don't you see that if you didn't let me know he was here it would look
to him as if I didn't wish to meet him--as if I had told you that you were
not to introduce him?"

Probably Mrs. Bolton believed too that a man's mind was agile enough for
these conjectures; but she said she did not suppose he would take it in
that way; she added that he stayed longer than she expected, because the
little girl seemed to like it so much; she always cried when she had to go
away.