"They all landed over at the drug-store 'n' got in 'n' started out fresh. Mr. Jilkins settled for the five hundred, 'n' they went off feelin' real friendly. They run out across the square, an' then—" Susan hesitated. "You got a shock yesterday," she said, still not looking at her friend, but speaking sympathetically, "'n' it seems too bad to give you another to-day; but you 'll have to know—"
"Heaven pro—" cried Mrs. Lathrop.
"They run over the deacon comin' out o' the station. They did n't see him, an' he did n't see them. He ain't dead."
Mrs. Lathrop was silent.
"Mrs. Allen took him home. Of course that means Polly 'll get him in the end."
Mrs. Lathrop was silent for a long time. Finally she said very deliberately:
"Maybe it's just as—"
"It's better," said her friend, with decision; "for the man settled with the deacon for fifteen hundred."