She went to the closet, found the molasses jug, and filled her pitcher. Then she came back and sat down. She had not been invited to sit, but Esther scorned ceremony.
"No, sir," she observed, as if carrying on an uninterrupted conversation, "I can't set and read the newspapers. And I can't go to walk neither, even if 'tis such weather as 'tis to-day. Some folks can, though, and they've gone."
Sears turned the page of the Item. He made no comment. His silence did not in the least disturb his caller.
"Yes, they've gone," she repeated. "Right in the middle of the forenoon, too.... Oh, well! when the Admiral of all creation comes to get you to go cruisin' along with him, you go, I suppose. That is, some folks do. I'd like to see the man I'd make such a fool of myself over."
The captain was reading the "Local Jottings" now. Mrs. Tidditt kept serenely on.
"I wouldn't let any man make such a soft-headed fool of me," she declared. "'Twould take more than a mustache and a slick tongue to get my money away from me—if I had any."
Sears was obliged to give up the Jottings. He sighed and put down the paper.
"What's the matter, Esther?" he asked. "Who's after your money?"
"Nobody, and good reason why, too. And I ain't out cruisin' 'round the fields with an Eg neither."
"With an egg? Who is?"