“There are different things,” she murmured, still looking at her spoon. “I have letters to write—I keep up with a good many old friends in Binghamville and Albany, where I lived with my married niece ten years, till they moved West. I loved her children; I half brought them up. One died; I can't seem to get over it—” Her eyes filled, and she made no effort to cover two tears that slipped over.
Varian took her hand again. “I know about that—I know!” he said softly.
“Then there are my flowers; I do so enjoy the beds and the greenhouses here,” she went on more cheerfully. “The gardeners are very kind to me—I think they like to have me come in. Mr. McFadden gives me a good many slips and cuttings. I love flowers dearly. Then I read a good deal, and there is always some little thing to do for the young girls here. They—the ones I know—come in for a moment while I mend something, or pin their things in the back, and it's surprising how much there is to do! They fly about so they can't stop to take care of their things. They talk to me while I set them straight, and it's very interesting. I tell Lizzie I go out a great deal, just hearing about their adventures, when she drops in to see me. She never forgets me; she brings somebody to my sitting-room every day or so that she thinks I'd enjoy meeting—and I always do. She never makes a mistake.”
“Oh, she's wonderful,” Varian agreed easily. “There's nobody like Mrs. Dud, of course.”
She stopped her work a moment and looked curiously at him.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked. “You all say it—in just that way; but I don't think I quite see what you mean. Why is she wonderful? Because she looks so young?”
“That, in the first place,” Varian returned, with a smile, “but not only that.”
“Of course that is very strange,” she mused. “Now Lizzie is three years older than I. You would never think it, would you?”
“No,” he agreed, still smiling; “but then, Mrs. Dud looks younger than everybody. It is her specialty. I think what we mean,” he continued, “is her amazing capacity; she does so much, so ridiculously much, and so much better than other people. We try to keep up with things—your sister is a little bit ahead. She seems to have always been doing the very latest thing, you see. And all her responsibilities, her various affairs—it makes one's head swim! The women have set themselves a tremendous field to cover nowadays, and when one succeeds so admirably—” He paused.
She shook her head thoughtfully.