Miss Gibbie Gault

Mrs. Tate. It was the last meeting before adjournment for the summer, and though Mrs. Pryor, the president, h

would be as hot as this to-day, though you can nearly always look for heat in May." She slapped her hands together

g back to her seat and wiping her face with Mrs. Webb's handkerchief, which happened to be closest to her;

strokes. "She has five others exactly like it. She says she would have ordered ten, but when a person has passed the sixty-fifth birthd

on which she had not been sewing and folded her arms. "Miss Gibbie may be queer, but there's a lot of sense in deciding on a certain sty

industriously sewing. "But that's Gibbie Gault. From the time she was born she has snapped her fingers at othe

ets and locked them up in her house." Mrs. Tate pointed her needle, which had been unt

ly. "I have long seen the funny side, but it took me lon

d then I hear references to Miss Gibbie Gault's graveyard, and to the way she once got ahead of your boys, and I've often

ents and grandparents and great-grandparents are buried. Her mother was a Bloodgood; and everybody knows, also, that since the Yankee soldier, who died during

in?" Mrs. Burnham's vo

e's no g

down another which is inside," interrupted Mrs. Tate, to whom the question had not been asked. "I w

eminiscently. "My boys followed her one day, Mrs. Burnham, and the

e and started to get on the one outside, and there was none to get on. The boys had taken her l

o get down either way; but suddenly, Richard said, she balanced herself on the top of the wall and sat the

ck said his feet were dead feet, he couldn't budge. Neit

nd down the hill she marched them and on into town. All the length of King Street they went, then into

arted to follow, but Miss Gibbie had nodded her head backward, and a nod was enough. When they got in the house she

and the boys ate it, every bit of it, and, feeling better, were beginning to look aro

, as she didn't seem mad a bit, he thought she was going to tell them to run on home, when she turned to the dining-room servant, who had come in with her, and flung out two big old-fashioned nightgow

ng in the dust, and following them were boys and dogs and goats and girls, and I stood still, like all the other grown people, to see what was the matter. I laughed till I cried. Frederick stumbled at every other

indow. "It was twelve years ago, but I have never forgotten what she said or the way she said it. I can see her now." Mrs. Moon sat upright. "'My dear Madam,' she said, 'my dear M

and walked across the room, this time throwing wide the shutters and letting in a glare of sunshine. "If I'd known it was going to be as warm as this I

b, threading the needle held cl

That little Peggy McDougal is with he

nstantly taking her about and giving her things. But Mary, of

can. But I don't think Mary gives herself a thought. Did you all know the night-school teacher is going to leave?" and Mrs. Tate put dow

son he's going. I believe any girl can keep a man from falling in love with her if she wants to. The trouble wi

w unto herself from childhood, and, now she is back in Yorkburg, she thinks she can keep it up, can live her life independently of others, can do her own way, come and

chimed Mrs. Tate. "Ephraim a

or silence. "Besides, they have their quarters outside, and both are old. Out W

in her lap. "Yorkburg is like all the rest of the world, as we would

shouldn't she? Heaven knows she's done enough for Yorkburg since she came back. I think she was mighty good to come and li

ake the orphan children on an all-day picnic to Wayne Beach on the fourteenth of this month, and all at her

an answer-that-now-if-you-can air, and several started to answer. Mrs. Burnham'

us to know. If Miss Cary prefers not to discuss her money matters, we have no right to inquire into them. I have not been here v

not supposed to take interest in what

other things. All these Western and Northern ideas which Mary Cary has brought back are very distasteful to the Virginians of historic ancestry. We have gotten on very well for many ce

on the knob, tilted her chin and screwed up her left eye so tightly that it seemed but a little round hole, and at

table over which Mrs. Pryor was presiding, and, without a good-morning to th

't. Do you ever tell Mr. Pryor about St. Paul's opinions? I hope, some of these eternal times, I am going to know St. Paul. His epistles don't speak of a wife, but I've

were unfastened and thrown back over her shoulders, the sprig muslin skirt was spread out car

d her lips firmly together and looked around the room as if asking for Christia

When a woman sits in judgment upon

hear a man in public insisting on keeping women in their place, keeping them down and under, not letting them do this or letting them do that, you may be certain he is a managed man. But if you won't discuss St. Paul with a sinner such as I, we willgo

n held at arm's-length from the spo

. Pryor was telling us she had engaged the /General Maury/ to

n woman, Lizzie, your curiosity in money matters is unrighteous. If mo

s. Pryor's voice was high and sharp. "Mary C

rrected Mrs. Tate, pointing her

ever had a fortune left her, and yet after nine years' absence she comes back, has a beautiful home, a horse, a

good people will nev

zz

ing fan. "Though one feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, brings cleanliness out of dirt, and gladness where was dulness

as even less regular than Miss Honoria Brockenborough, and her attendance to-day was evidently for a purpose. By herself Miss Gibbie was an Occasion, a visit to her was an experience that gave color and life to the dullest of days, and she did not deny her enjoyment

elephone say for you to come on home' that Mr. Pryor done took sick on the

f frightened sympathy. From others a movement to rise, as if

in peace. Lizzie Bettie is so excitable. Mr. Pryor has been having attacks of indigesti