Catherine was breathless with her quick climb and her many parcels. She dropped into a chair on the porch, and took off her hat to fan herself.
“There is the funniest woman on the street,” she said. “I know she is an agent, and I suppose she’ll be here soon; but I’ve got to shell these peas and I want to do it out here, so I shan’t run from her. Won’t you bring out some pans for the peas when you take your broom in, Hannah? I’m too weary to move.”
Hannah, on her way after pans, persuaded Frieda to come out and help shell peas, and all three were soon busily at work.
Suddenly Catherine snapped a pea at Hannah to attract her attention.
“My agent!” she whispered, as a woman in a loose flowing gown marched toward them.
166She mounted the steps and, stooping over Catherine, snapped something around her neck.
“There!” she said, straightening herself. “That will never come off.”
All three girls gasped. Catherine clutched at the offending article and the peas rolled in all directions.
“It’s a collar,” said the woman triumphantly. “You can wear it forever. Just put a fresh ribbon over it now and then, and you’re always dressed. Only fifteen cents. I’ll try one on you, Miss–” and before Hannah could utter a protest she was caught in the celluloid trap as Catherine had been. Speechless they faced each other. With a little gasp Frieda slipped over the porch railing and disappeared around the corner of the house. Hotspur came bounding after her and she patted him, and hugged him and laughed and laughed.
“A collar just like yours, Hotspur dear,” she told him in German. “And it will never come off! Catherine, the Saint, the Perfect, the Inviolate, sitting there looking like a–in English, like an idiom! O, Hotspur, dear, it has done me good. I have wished I could want to laugh at her. Now I shan’t be so afraid of her ever again. Come! we must go. It’s time for our row.” And Frieda danced off across a little wood path which was a short-cut to the boat-house.