“Did Dr. Madden say anything about the granddaughter when he was here this evening, Mrs. Doane?”
The woman stared.
“Dr. Madden? Laws-a-me, child, you do say some silly things. For how could the doctor call here when he’s in Europe?”
The leader told her then that we had met the returned doctor on the road.
“I thought, of course, that he had been here to see you about something or other. But he may have been coming across from C. H. O.”
We then introduced old Goliath Cassibaum Hopple, explaining briefly that he was a friend of ours who wanted to get a bed for the night. We didn’t mention his family squabbles, for he had asked us not to—it pained him to talk about the unhappy matter, he said, with sad eyes, and it pained him even worse to have others talk about it. To that point, it was all right, we thought, to keep his secret. It didn’t hurt Ma any. How her tongue would have waggled, though, could she have known the truth! Old Goliath would have squirmed, all right. And it was just as well that he got out of that.
The doors were open to any friend of ours, came the warm invitation. But when the housekeeper got a better look at the visitor, and saw how big he was, she began to worry for fear that there might not be a bed in the house half long enough for him.
“Don’t you fret none ’bout me, ma’am,” the giant told her quickly. “Fur I know how to make myself comfortable on the floor. In fact, that’s where my wife makes me sleep the most of the time, anyway—me and the dawg.”
The dumb-bell! You should have seen Ma stare at him. And he had been so very particular to caution us about mentioning his home affairs.
“His wife,” Poppy put in quickly, to smooth things over, “has some queer notions.” Then he used his toes on old Goliath’s shins as a gentle little hint for the other to dry up.