“I have come to ask you, Mrs. Merrill” said Miss Lucretia, “if it is true.”
Here was a question, indeed, for the poor lady to answer! But Mrs. Merrill was no coward.
“It is partly true, I believe.”
“Partly?” said Miss Lucretia, sharply.
“Yes, partly,” said Mrs. Merrill, rousing herself for the trial; “I have never yet seen a newspaper article which was wholly true.”
“That is because newspapers are not edited by women,” observed Miss Lucretia. “What I wish you to tell me, Mrs. Merrill, is this: how much of that article is true, and how much of it is false?”
“Really, Miss Penniman,” replied Mrs. Merrill, with spirit, “I don't see why you should expect me to know.”
“A woman should take an intelligent interest in her husband's affairs, Mrs. Merrill. I have long advocated it as an entering wedge.”
“An entering wedge!” exclaimed Mrs. Merrill, who had never read a page of the Woman's Hour.
“Yes. Your husband is the president of a railroad, I believe, which is largely in that state. I should like to ask him whether these statements are true in the main. Whether this Jethro Bass is the kind of man they declare him to be.”