"But all the old don't end like Mr. Ball. I shall be a lively old lady, if I'm not stopped."
"Oh, nothing could stop you."
She laughed.
"Don't be so hopeless. You see, I've studied the subject of old age. The reason it isn't more valued is because it's taken too modestly. I suppose it's difficult not to be modest if you're ninety. But no old person should be unselfish or patient. That's fatal. You see the success our own grandmother has made."
Without turning round, Ethan began to laugh, too.
"A woman must be gentle and amiable (if she can manage it) while she's young. It's becoming in the young," she said, piously; then, with a cheerful gleam, "but all old women should be defiant—yes, they should study a dictatorial style, and make the young ones toe the mark. It's the only way. Oh, I'll be an aged Tartar, and, you'll see, they'll all say, 'A person of remarkable character is old Mrs.—' H'm!"
She stopped short, and he turned round smiling and glowering at her, and then back again to the window.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, looking over his shoulder.
"What? That poor devil over there? Yes, I've been watching him."
"I don't see— Oh, yes, the cripple. Ethan, Ethan, what is one to do with you!"