"I want to know! Wal, wal! An' here they've been going around as peaceful as two kittens ever since."
"Of course. They pitched in and settled it man fashion; they ain't a couple of women who go around sniffin' and spittin' at each other," said Richards, with brutal sarcasm. "As near as I can learn, Tim and Dan come at him to once."
"They're a nice pair of tramps!" said Mrs. Richards indignantly. "I told you when they come they'd make trouble."
"I told you the cow'd eat up the grindstone," Richards replied with a grin, walking away.
The more Mrs. Richards thought of it, the finer it all appeared to her. She was deeply engaged now on Arthur's side, and was very eager to do something to help on in his "sparking," as she called it. She seized the first opportunity to tell Edith.
"Don't s'pose you heard of the little fracas we had t'other day," she began, in phrase which she intended to be delicately indirect.
Edith was sitting in the cart, and Mrs. Richards stood at the wheel, with her apron shading her head.
"Why, no. What was it?"
"Mr. Ramsey come mighty near gettin' killed." The old woman enjoyed deeply the dramatic pallor and distortion of the girl's face.
"Why—why—what do you mean?"