Geraldine seized a dish-towel, and Mrs. Carder, her hands in the suds, cast a troubled glance around at her.
"Rufus won't like it," she declared timorously.
"Why should you say anything so foolish? What did I come out here for?"
The old woman looked around at her with a brief, strange look.
"You couldn't get help," went on Geraldine, "and so as I needed a home I came."
"Is that what they told you?"
"Yes. That is what my stepmother told me, and I see it is true. You seem to have no one here but men."
"Yes," replied Mrs. Carder. "It—it hasn't been a healthy place for girls." She cast a glance toward the door as she spoke in a lowered voice.
"Dreadfully lonely, you mean?" inquired Geraldine, unpleasantly affected by the other's timidity. "The woman has no spirit," she added mentally with some impatience.
Mrs. Carder looked full in her eyes for a silent space; then: "Rufus can do anything he wants to—anything," she whispered.