There was a rap at the door, and the uproar ceased, and the vixens were magnetized as instantaneously and as completely as if they had all been stricken with palsy, and their tongues fastened to the roofs of their mouths.
Mrs. Swipes put on a smile, and courtesied to the door, opened it, and there stood Mrs. Longbow!
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Longbow. Well, I do declare!" exclaimed Mrs. Swipes, putting on one of her blandest faces, "you have raaly got out at last. It warn't no longer than this very morning that Swipes and I were wondering what had become of you. Swipes said he know'd you must be sick, but I told Swipes you had so many cares—we women folks have so many cares, Mrs. Longbow. And who do you think is here?—Mrs. Bird, and Mrs. Beagle, and Aunt Sonora—and we were jest a-talkin' 'bout you—and we all wonder'd how you did manage to get along so well in your family;" and after Mrs. Swipes had chatted and bowed Mrs. Longbow through the hall, Mrs. Longbow was introduced to the nest of hornets which had just been buzzing so unconsciously about her ears.
"Why—Mrs. Longbow!" cracked Mrs. Bird's voice at the same time, jumping from her chair with a convulsive jerk, and grasping her hand, and imprinting a kiss upon her. "You have—done it—now—you have come out at last. Goin' to call at our house, I s'pose. Let me see—it's one, two—yes—three weeks since you've show'd your face, Mrs. Longbow—lookin' as bright as a spring mornin', I see."
"All-er that," said Mrs. Beagle.
"But then you have had so much to do," continued Mrs. Bird; "the Squire's house had got inter an awful muss while he was a wid'wer. Lavinny didn't—know—how—to—do—but the people say that it shines like a pink now—and how you have spruc'd up the children—I didn't hardly know Elvira Julia last Sunday. I thought her mother had come back agin."
"She looked so happy!" exclaimed Mrs. Beagle.
"And the old Squire begins to hold up his head agin, like somebody," added Aunt Sonora.
"Nothin' like a woman in a house," chimed in Mrs. Swipes.
"Nothin' like it," said Aunt Sonora.