"Nobody knows it better than I do," she retorted. "I've got reason to be as mortified as anybody, because the outlandish work was begun in my husband's store. Of course, he ain't to blame, but he ought to have told the fool that what he was doin' would make trouble."
"No one attaches any blame upon you or your husband," Mrs. Tweedie replied.
"I'm sure," said Mrs. Jones, "that I cannot see how Mr. Stout had anything to do with it. It seems to me that it was not done maliciously, any way, but more in the spirit of a practical joke."
"Practical meddlesomeness!" snapped Mrs. Stout; "and the man that did it was set up to it, in my opinion, by a woman in this club!"
The ladies looked at Mrs. Stout, and then at each other in astonishment.
"Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. Tweedie. "If you are so positive pray tell us about it."
"Well, I ain't exactly positive," Mrs. Stout began, slowly, "but I guess at things sometimes, and come pretty near bein' right, 'specially when two and two make four. I ain't a woman that'll hurt anybody's good name unless it's been rightly damaged before by theirselves. In this case I ain't sure, so I won't mention no names, only say what I think made Sam Billin's do what he did." Poor Mrs. Stout, for the first time in her life she failed to find the direct path to the point, and wallowed helplessly about in a meaningless slough of words. "Well," she continued, "I don't seem to be gettin' ahead very fast, but what I wanted to say was this: You know that we talked some about advertisin' at a meetin' of the committee awhile ago, and decided not to spend any money on it, but after the meetin' was over that day one of the ladies said to me as we was goin' home that she thought that somethin' ought to be done about advertisin'. Now, I think that she, or somebody else that thought same as she did, must have talked with Sam Billin's, and told him her opinion about advertisin', and he agreed with her, and went off and done it."
The ladies were disappointed. The delicious bit of scandal that they had anticipated was not forthcoming.
"What you have told us," said Mrs. Tweedie, "is very indefinite."
"It's about as definite as anything I hear at the club, only I didn't mention no names—some folks ain't so careful," retorted Mrs. Stout, who was angry with herself.