Side by side they placed themselves on the sofa instinctively; and Martha threw her arms about her mother ecstatically.
"Am I happy?" she repeated. "Can't you see I'm happy? Oh, mammie, I've got so much to tell you. Oh, ain't I lucky, mammie? I didn't know when I married him—I was just—mad, inside—I was hardboiled. I didn't intend to be good to Johnnie. I didn't know what else to do. I was sick of being called an old maid! I thought he could just run the risk, if he would keep on asking me. I didn't intend being nice to him, or anything. Mammie, people don't appreciate Johnnie. I didn't. Not at first, and then I found out how SWEET he was! He was just sweet to me, mammie, and I went and told him everything the other night. I could just kiss the ground that man walks on, with his dear old feet!"
Tears came springing into little Mrs. Benton's eyes.
"I told him everything about New York. I told him I'd been crazy. He said we'd be a pair of nuts, then. Fifty fifty, he said, I told him, no, mammie. A thousand to one, I told him. I tried to make him see, but he said I just thought that because I was such a good little kid! He said I was a good little kid, mammie. Those were his very words! I tell you right now, mammie, nobody's ever going to say a word about his mother to me! Because she WAS part of him, after all, and he hates it. I never knew there was anything in the world so darling as that man! You just ought to see him in his pajamas! He's too sweet! Blue and white striped they are. I'll let you see them, mammie!"
"Rare treat," thought Emily, dazedly.
"Don't you think he's a lamb, mammie? Don't you think he's too dear?"
"I always liked Johnnie."
"Oh, I don't mean that way! You just wait till you know him better! But nobody can appreciate Johnnie till she's married to him!"
"That seems too bad!"
"Oh, I don't know. It suits me!" she retorted, immediately. "Nobody wants a lot of women sitting around appreciating her husband. Mammie, it was too funny the way it happened. You know, Mrs. Blacksley and I had an awful row. She practically put me out of the shop."