"How de do, neighbor?"
Blanche drew her shawl a little closer around her. "Not very well; sit
down, won't you?"
"Can't stop. You don't seem very peart. I want to know what seems to be
the trouble." Her keen eyes had never seemed so penetrating before.
Blanche flushed and moved uneasily. She was afraid of the old creature,
who seemed half-man, half-woman.
"Oh, I don't know. Rheumatism, I guess."
"That so? Well, this weather is 'nough to give anybody rheumatiz. I
tell Ed--that's my boy--I tell Ed we made holy fools of ourselves comin'
out here. I never see such a damn country f'r wind." She rambled on
about the weather for some time, and at last rose. "Well, I wanted to
borrow your wash-boiler; mine leaks like an infernal old sieve, and I
dasen't go to town to get it mended for fear of a blow. What's trouble?"
Blanche suddenly put her hand to her side and grew white and rigid. Then
the blood flamed into her cheeks, and the perspiration stood out on her
forehead. She clinched her lips between her teeth and lay back in her
chair.
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