"Oh?"
"Yes, she did. It was too funny, when you think about it. You see——"
She chuckled. She could enjoy any joke herself in her high mood. "She had to have some money to go on with, and she asked me straight out if there was any chance of me putting some in. And I said no, not unless she got rid of that man of hers. Mother, you can't imagine what a temper that woman's got! I thought she was going to pull my hair or slap me. I kept backing out towards the door, and she kept coming after me. She called me——" Martha giggled. "She called me an evil-minded little old maid! She said she'd like to see me groveling—groveling, it was she said—before some man. And here I am already just groveling! She said she hoped I'd have enough sense some day to appreciate a real man. It was pretty rotten of me to say that to her, because she is fond of him. She said his very cough was precious to her; she said she hoped I'd fall in love till I'd kiss somebody's false teeth when he wasn't there himself!" Martha snickered and added, "But, of course, he'd take them with him, his teeth, but I didn't think of that in time to answer her. I was afraid of her. And I was mad, I can tell you. And then, of course, Johnnie came along again. I was hardboiled and I went and married him. Because, after all, you've got to marry or be called an old maid in this world, haven't you, mammie? Let's ask her down now after a while, for a week. Mrs. Blacksley, I mean. But maybe she won't come. She's got such an awful temper."
Emily cried, the moment there was a pause—suddenly:
"Martha, I was never unfaithful to your father in my life—your father, I mean Bob Kenworthy!"
"You weren't?" She stared at her mother, taken aback. "Well, that's sort of funny."
"I ought to have told you that at once that day when you told me—what you thought! But I didn't."
Martha was looking at her thoughtfully.
"Well, that's sort of funny. I was just thinking of that this morning!" She had spoken slowly, but a thought quickened her pace again. "Mammie, you just ought to see Johnnie in the morning! He's too sweet! His hair never gets mussed up a bit, it's so short, and sort of soft in the morning. And I was just thinking this morning about what you said, or what I said to you, rather, and it would have been a raw deal for dad, after all. Because really, if a woman's got a good husband, she ought to treat him right, I think. Don't you?"
"I CERTAINLY DO!"