The blood beat angrily in Calvin Stammark's head. Whatever did Phebe
mean by talking like that to Hannah just when she was to marry him! He
cursed silently at Richmond Braley's fatuous face, at Mrs. Braley's
endorsement of all that her eldest daughter related, at Hosmer's
assumption of worldly experience. But Hannah's manner filled him with
apprehension.

"It's according to how you feel," Phebe continued; "some like to get up
of a black winter morning and fight the kitchen fire. I don't. Some
women are happy handing plates to their husband while he puts down a
square feed. Not in mine."

"The loneliness is what I hate," Hannah added.

"It's hell," the other agreed. "Excuse me, ma."

Hannah went on: "And you get old without ever seeing things. There is
all that you tell about going on--those crowds and the jewels and
dresses, the parties and elegant times; but there is never a whisper of
it in Greenstream; nothing but the frogs that I could fairly scream at
--and maybe a church social." As she talked Hannah avoided Celvin
Stammark's gaze.

"Me and you'll have a conversation," Phebe promised her recklessly.

Choking with rage Calvin rose. "I might as well move along," he
asserted.

"Don't get heated," Phebe advised him. "I wouldn't break up your happy
home, only I want Hannah to have an idea of what's what. I don't doubt