"Is he a good man?" Bessie asked as she took Barbara's hand, and looked up at her earnestly. It was she who had asked that same question before. The first time Barbara had evaded an answer, but now she replied quickly, and with a flood of meaning:
"Yes."
Chapter IX
Men Talk Too
"Stout's Grocery," as the sign over the door read, was the scene—especially on rainy evenings—of many heated debates and windy harangues on topics as varied as New England weather. There was decided the policies of the great political parties; the characters of great or notorious men were weighed and analyzed; the worth, financial, mental, and moral, of the citizens of Manville—not present—were frankly estimated; and, alas, sometimes, the virtues and vices of women received the attention of the gathering of do-little busybodies.
It was raining. The prophecy had appeared in the evening paper, and it had come to pass that the prophecy and the elements were working harmoniously. Only a few brief words were devoted to it by those who had gathered at the store on this particular evening. Incense, in kind, was ascending in clouds to one of man's greatest gods—tobacco.
"How's that woman's club gettin' 'long?" Sam Billings asked without addressing any one in particular.