“You thought I had a baby in that carriage.”

“Of course I did.”

“There wasn’t a baby in the carriage.”

“Well, what on earth was it, then? A cat?”

Eudora, if possible, looked prouder. “It was a package of soiled linen from the Lancaster girls.”

“Oh, good heavens, Eudora!”

“Yes,” said Eudora, proudly. “I lost nearly everything when that railroad failed. I had enough left to pay the taxes, and that was all. After I had used a small sum in the savings-bank there was nothing. One day I went over to the Lancasters’, and I—well, I had not had much to eat for several days. I was a little faint, and—”

“Eudora, you poor, darling girl!”

“And the Lancaster girls found out,” continued Eudora, calmly. “They gave me something to eat, and I suppose I ate as if I were famished. I was.”

“Eudora!”