"Yes, she is—a very good woman!"
"Then why did her husband have to leave her?—Yes, I know her just as well as you do, perhaps better."
"You know nothing bad about her, that I'm certain," replied Mrs. Coates, raising her voice to quite an angry pitch; "you should ask, 'What sort of a sneak was her husband to leave such a woman?'—that's what you should ask."
"So that is how she talks about her husband, is it?"
"No, it isn't. I've never heard her mention him, so there. But I won't have you say one word against my Mrs. Waring. So I tell you!" And Mrs. Coates left the room for fear her tears should be seen.
"The horrid man!" she said to herself. "I suppose God sees something in him to love, at least that's what Mrs. Waring would say, so I suppose I must search for it till I find it. But for that he should go out of this house this very day, that he should! Wouldn't Jim be riled if he knew what he said about Mrs. Waring! I'd better not tell him."
Late one evening Phebe paid a visit to Jim Coates to explain to him her garden scheme and to secure his help for it.
What a change there was in that home from what it was on her first visit! The whole family this evening was in a state of great excitement over the arrival of a new couch, and each member had been taking turns to lie down on it. Jim had also got a special and personal bit of news which considerably added to the excitement; he had just seen Mr. Black, who had offered him a good position as foreman on some fresh works quite near, and when Mrs. Waring added her news there was a state of matters in that little home difficult to describe.
Jim clapped his hands and shouted: "If this isn't like being in Heaven afore the time! It beats everything I ever knowed!"
"Don't make quite so much noise, then," put in Mrs. Coates. "You see," turning to Mrs. Waring, "we've got a lodger in bed upstairs, and he's that bad, poor fellow, I don't know what will become of him."