The other women also took their leave, and soon Grace was alone with Mrs. Taggess, who said:—
"I'd apologize for them, my dear, if you hadn't known in advance that they were the most malicious lot in the county."
Grace laughed, and replied:—
"But weren't they lots of fun?" Mrs. Taggess embraced her hostess, and said:—
"I believe you'd find something to laugh at even in a cyclone."
"If not," Grace replied, "'twouldn't be for lack of trying."
XIX—DAYS IN THE STORE
CALEB'S departure was effected without publicity, no one having known of its probability but the Somertons and Pastor Grateway, whom Caleb had asked to provide a temporary substitute to lead his weekly "class-meetin'." The substitute, however, made haste to tell of his new dignity, so within twenty-four hours the entire town knew that Caleb had gone to New York, and great was the wonder; for from the date of the foundation of the town no Claybanker had been known to go to New York intentionally, although it was reported that an occasional native had reached the metropolis in the course of a desultory journey to the bad.