Henrietta had made her proposition, which was to take Lem out of pawn and pay Miss Susan the amount of Harvey's note a little at a time. “I won't tell a lie for nobody, not even to keep up a spite. Lem's been a sore trial to me, and I guess I ain't made to have boys around me. And there was a time when I thought you was the nicest woman I'd ever met. You've got a way with you that makes folks like you. Often and often I 've wished I had time from my work so I could fix myself up and set on the porch with you and get real friendly with you. Mebby you won't know what I mean, Henrietta, but many a time I've wished I had time to get the grease off me and be so I could put my arm around you, like Lorna and Gay does. That's the sort of way you've got about you. I ain't ashamed to say there's been times I'd have given a lot if I could have kissed you.”
“Yes, I know,” said Henrietta. “I know the feeling.”
“Mebby so,” said Susan, “but if so I guess you never had it when you was thinkin' of me. Nor I ain't ever had it toward no other woman—or man—not even my ma, as far as I can remember; she was such a fretty, naggish creature, poor soul!”
Miss Susan wiped an eye, furtively.
“I had an aunt once that made doughnuts and smelled of pink soap,” she went on. “The way I felt to her was the nearest like what I felt toward you. I don't know what to call it, unless it's like thoughts of a cool grave on a hot Sunday mornin' in church after a hard week's work. Henrietta, you're so comfortable! There just ain't no vinegar in you!”
“There is in you, Susan,” Henrietta said. “Do you know how much?”
“Aplenty!”
“Just about one drop to a gallon of goodness,” said Henrietta gayly. “A pint is a pound, is n't it? There must be about a hundred and sixty pints of you, Susan, and not over one pint is vinegar. Only you do let it all come to the top—you certainly do! And you are getting more and more vinegary.”
“I have my trials.”
“The trouble with both of us is that we're failures, and we are beginning to get old and it hurts,” said Henrietta. “You were going to send me away, when I had n't a cent in the world, but that would not hurt me as much as it hurt you. Such things would turn three more pints of Susan into vinegar. And you 'll nag Lem, and there will be three more pints of vinegared Susan. Do you know what I've noticed, Susan?”