“I seen ’em both, him and her, a sitting close together and a going on jes like two lovyers as was going to be married to-morrow, or a bride and groom as was married yesterday.”
“How? how?”
“Well, ma’am, if her head wasn’t a leaning on his shoulder, it was so nigh it as it made no difference! And her hand was squeezed inter hizzen, and her eyes was rolled up inter hizzen in the most be-devilling way as ever I see in my life—for all the world as if she was a loving of him, and a worshipping of him, and a praising of him, and a praying to him, all in one gaze!”
“And he!—and he!”
“Oh, my dear honey! what can you expect of a poor, weak, he-man? He looks down on her as if he enjoyed being loved and worshipped and praised and prayed to, and he squeezes of her hand up to his mouth as if he’d like to have eaten it!”
“Oh, my heart! my heart!” moaned Sybil, turning deadly pale.
Still, Miss Tabby, full of her own subject, scarcely noticed the pain she was inflicting, so she continued:
“And jes that minute they happened either to see or to hear me, I don’t know which. Anyways, they looks up, and—whew! they jumps apart as if a fire-cracker had gone off between ’em! Well, I tells my lady as her child is sick, and she jumps up, impatient like, to go and look after him. And I comes away too. And that was just about ten minutes before you got home yourself.”
“Deceived! Betrayed! Scorned! Laughed at!” bitterly exclaimed Sybil.
“And that’s all. And now look here, honey! Don’t you go to taking on about this here piece o’ business! And don’t you get mad long o’ your husband on any woman’s account, whatever you do! Come down on the woman! That’s what you do. It is all her fault, not hizzen! He couldn’t help himself, poor innocent creetur! Lor! honey, I don’t know much about married life, bein’ of a single woman myself; but I have heard my mother say as men are mons’rous weak-minded poor creeturs, and need to be guided by their wives; and if they an’t ruled by their wives, they are sure to be by some other woman! And it stands to reason it is more respectable to be ruled by their wives! And so, honey, my advice to you is, to send that bad woman about her business, and take that innocent man firmly in hand.”