"Do you mean to—" hesitated Mrs. Albright.
"Yes, I mean to run away from the old man! I know you're shocked; but you haven't lived with Serono Tenney! He'll freeze me out next winter, sure as fate! I'll have to shut up the house, except the kitchen, and stay there, where I can't see even a team pass, with hardly a neighbor in sight. It drives me wild! To think I was such a fool! If he were a poor man, I could stand it; but he's got money enough."
"Why don't you make it fly, then?" broke in Miss Crilly. "Bet you
I would!"
"No, you wouldn't! He had to go with me to pick out the apron, and he fretted like sixty because I would buy one made of decent cloth! I was all in just over that!"
"We s'posed he was a nice, pleasant man—it's too bad!" Miss
Crilly was the only one who found words for reply.
"I don't have anything to read," went on the disappointed woman. "He doesn't want to know anything. He does take a daily newspaper, but that's all. There was a Bible in the house when I came, and two or three schoolbooks—pretty place to live in!"
"Get a divorce!" advised Miss Crilly.
"I could easy! He'd never fight it—hasn't got life enough. But where could I go?"
"I'm afraid you couldn't do anything with Miss Sniffen," said Mrs.
Albright sadly.
"What do you say, Polly?" smiled Mrs. Tenney. "You look as if you had your advice all ready."