“Hear the man! Land sakes! don't everybody in Trumet know everybody else? What ARE you drivin' at?”
“Keziah, you're a single woman.”
His companion let go of the chair, which she had been holding in place, and stepped back.
“I'm a single woman?” she repeated sharply. “What do you mean by that? Did—did anybody say I wasn't?”
“No, no! 'Course not. But you're a widow, so you BE single, you know, and—”
“Well? Did you think I was twins? Get down off there this minute. You've gone crazy. I thought so when I saw that beaver. Either that or you've been drinkin'. Grace! What DOES make her so long gettin' that hammer?”
Finding the hammer did seem to take a long time. There was no sound from the kitchen. Kyan, steadying himself with one hand on the pipe, waved the other wildly.
“S-s-sh! s-sh-h!” he hissed. “Hush! be still! Don't get her in here. Keziah, you're single and so am I. You ain't got nobody to take care of you and I ain't, neither—that is, I don't want to be took care of—I mean, I've been took care of too much.”
Mrs. Coffin took another step in the direction of the kitchen.
“He IS loony!” she exclaimed under her breath. “I—”