“I don’t know why you should be so sure of that, Abby,” sniffed Miss Daggett. “I should think a person from right here in Brookville would be more company. How can a hired girl from Boston view the passin’ and tell her who’s goin’ by? I think it’s a ridiculous idea, myself.”
“I shouldn’t wonder if it’s somebody she knows,” surmised Mrs. Daggett. “’Twould be real pleasant for her to have a hired girl that’s mebbe worked for her folks.”
“I intend to ask her, if she comes to the door,” stated Lois Daggett. “You can drop me right at the gate; and if you ain’t going too far with your buggy-riding, Abby, you might stop and take me up a spell later. It’s pretty warm to walk far today.”
“Well, I was thinkin’ mebbe I’d stop in there, too, Lois,” said Mrs. Daggett apologetically. “I ain’t been to see Miss Orr for quite a spell, and—”
The spinster turned and fixed a scornfully, intelligent gaze upon the mild, rosy countenance of her sister-in-law.
“Oh, I see!” she sniffed. “That was where you was pointing for, all the while! And you didn’t let on to me, oh, no!”
“Now, Lois, don’t you get excited,” exhorted Mrs. Daggett. “It was just about the wall papers. Henry, he says to me this mornin’—... Git-ap, Dolly!”
“‘Henry says—Henry says’! Yes; I guess so! What do you know about wall papers, Abby? ...Well, all I got to say is: I don’t want nobody looking on an’ interfering when I’m trying to sell ‘Lives of Famous People.’ Folks, es a rule, ain’t so interested in anything they got to pay out money fer, an’ I want a clear field.”
“I won’t say a word till you’re all through talkin’, Lois,” promised Mrs. Daggett meekly. “Mebbe she’d kind of hate to say ‘no’ before me. She’s took a real liking to Henry.... Git-ap, Dolly.... And anyway, she’s awful generous. I could say, kind of careless; ‘If I was you, I’d take a leather-bound.’ Couldn’t I, Lois?”
“Well, you can come in, Abby, if you’re so terrible anxious,” relented Miss Daggett. “You might tell her, you and Henry was going to take a leather-bound; that might have some effect. I remember once I sold three Famous People in a row in one street. There couldn’t one o’ them women endure to think of her next door neighbor having something she didn’t have.”