Love throbs afluttered hence
Since first touch o’ baby hands
Caressed my heart’s store ahidden.
Returning to the femininity of Patience, it is also shown in her frequent references to dress. Upon an evening when the publication of her poems had been under discussion, when next the board was taken up she let them know that she had heard, in this manner:
“My pettieskirt hath a scallop,” she said. “Mayhap that will help thy history.”
“Oh,” cried Mrs. Curran, “we are discovered!”
“Yea,” laughed Patience—she must have laughed, “and tell thou of my buckled boots and add a cap-string.”
Further illustrative of her feminine characteristics and of her interest in dress, as well as of a certain fun-loving spirit which now and then seems to sway her, is this record of a sitting upon an evening when Mr. Curran and Mr. Hutchings had gone to the theater, and the ladies were alone:
Patience.—“Go ye to the lighted hall to search for learning? Nay, ’tis a piddle, not a stream, ye search. Mayhap thou sendest thy men for barleycorn. ’Twould then surprise thee should the asses eat it.”
Mrs. H.—“What is she driving at?”