"To have one in each room would be a great deal of expense," said
Mrs. Crump.
"What of it!" retorted Miss Major. "Haven't they money enough? They're always building additions—now the one that's going to spoil Miss Sterling's room and Miss Twining's down below. They'd a good deal better spend it on telephones."
"They've got a new rug down in the hall," announced Miss Castlevaine. "'Most anybody could have new rugs if they stole the money to buy them with!"
"What do you mean?" was Miss Crilly's quick query.
"You'd better not say anything about it; but I heard that Miss Twining wrote a poem for a Sunday-School paper and got eight dollars for it—"
"My!" put in Miss Crilly.
"And," went on Miss Castlevaine, "she bought a new shirt waist. When she wore it Mrs. Nobbs asked her where she got it. Like a simpleton, she told the whole story, so pleased to have earned the money, and never dreaming but that it was her own! What did they do but make her give up the seven dollars she had left! They did let her keep the waist—she needed it badly enough." Miss Castlevaine shook her head, while comments flew fast.
"I'm sorry for Miss Twining," sympathized Miss Crilly. "She's the kind that won't sputter it all out, as I should; she'll cry herself sick over it!"
"If we cried for all the hard things we have here," said Mrs.
Crump, "we shouldn't have any eyes left!"
"I wonder if the directors know how things are going," observed
Miss Major.