"Yes," added Sadie, also shaking hands reluctantly, "we didn't look to see you here. Anyhow Danny thought you went to the depot3 from his office."
"But," smiled Margaret, "she gave me the pleasant surprise of a call. I am so glad, because I wanted so much to know her, my husband's mother and the babies' grandmother! How pretty your flowers look, Sadie!" she added diplomatically and quite insincerely, for she groaned4 inwardly at the bunch of little artificial roses Sadie girlishly wore on the lapel of her coat.
"What is this to do?" Jennie suddenly demanded as her eyes fell upon the tea-table.
"We've been having tea and toast."
"Well!" breathed Sadie.
"Upon my word!" exclaimed Jennie. "You stopped Emmy in her Sa'urday's work to make tea and toast in the middle of the afternoon yet!"
"It took her just fifteen minutes."
"She ain't ever to be hindered in her Sa'urday's work! She has a cake to bake for Sunday then!"
"But you know," said Margaret patiently, "you stopped her on wash day to make tea for Mrs. Ocksreider."
"Well, but Mom ain't used to tea in the afternoon and Mrs. Ocksreider is. Anyhow, who's keeping house here, Margaret?"
"But surely I may have a cup of tea with your mother if I wish to, in this house!"
"But it up-mixes my accounts when you do somepin like this. Danny pays half of all the expenses here and Sadie and I pay half."
"Oh, I see," Margaret breathed rather than spoke5. "But after all, Jennie, it's quite a simple matter—charge the tea, sugar, milk, bread, and butter to Daniel's side of your account and I'll take the responsibility of it."
Jennie turned abruptly6 to her step-mother. "It's getting late on you, Mom, to get out home. You don't want to get there after dark, with a half a mile to walk from the station yet. Before I take off my coat and hat, I better see you on the street car that'll take you to the depot for the five o'clock train."
"Yes, Jennie," the old woman submissively answered, "I was just a-goin' to start to go when you come."
She rose with an effort from the comfortable chair before the fire in which Margaret had again placed her. But Margaret at once pressed her back into her seat.
"You will be glad to know, Jennie, that I have persuaded mother to spend the night with us," she said, "as she is too tired from her journey to go back before to-morrow."
"You will be glad to know, Jennie, that I have persuaded mother to spend the night with us," Margaret said
"You will be glad to know, Jennie, that I have persuaded mother to spend the night with us," Margaret said
"She never stops the night with us, Margaret," Jennie coldly returned. "Come on, Mom, I'll put you on the street car."
"But isn't it nice," cried Margaret, holding her arm around Mrs. Leitzel to keep Jennie off, "that I've succeeded in coaxing7 her to stay to-night? Such a pleasant surprise for Daniel when he comes home, to find you here, dear! What is home without a grandmother? Good discipline for Daniel, too, to have to give up this armchair for one evening! Even I have to get out of it when he wants it. But naturally he can't put his mother out of the only really comfortable chair in the house."
"But Danny paid for that chair," explained Sadie. "It would be funny—ain't?—if he couldn't sit in his own chair when he wants!"
"The spare-room bed ain't made up," Jennie frowned at Margaret. "And nobody has time to make it up at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon! Anyhow, strangers stopping over night is apt to give Sadie the headache. And Mom never wants to be away from her own bed. She won't can home herself in a strange bed, can you, Mom?"
But Margaret spoke before Mrs. Leitzel could reply. "I'll make up the guest bed. It won't take me ten minutes. Mother"—she patted Mrs. Leitzel's shoulder—"I'll be right downstairs again in ten minutes."
But Mrs. Leitzel clung to her hand. "Don't let me alone with—stay by me, Margaret——" she pitifully pleaded.
"You shall come upstairs with me, then, to my room," Margaret said, helping8 her, now, to rise to her feet.
"No, Margaret, Mom's to go back on the five o'clock train," affirmed Jennie peremptorily9. "Our Danny give her the money to go back. It ain't for you to be using our clean linens10 to make up the spare bed. Come on, Mom."
Jennie laid an ungentle grasp upon her step-mother's arm, but Margaret, her face suddenly ablaze11 with indignation, confronted her.
"Jennie! This is my husband's home, and his feeble mother shall be his guest and mine until to-morrow morning."
"She ain't his mother, she ain't even a blood relation. And what right have you, I'd like to know, to meddle12 in our family affairs?" Jennie fiercely demanded. "It's just your contrariness that makes you want to do everything that you see will spite us; for what other reason would a person like you have for taking up with an uneducated old woman like Mom? You wouldn't look at a person like her if it was not to spite us!"
"What right have I? The right of the humane13 to protect the helpless from brutality14, under any and all circumstances, without exception. She shall not leave this house to-day!"
"Now, Mom," Sadie turned on her step-mother, "you see what you make by coming here like this, without leaving us know! Ain't you worrying us enough all the time, without raising more trouble between us and Danny's wife yet?"
"Yes, yes, I'll go. Please, my dear"—she turned to Margaret,—"leave me go. I'd rather die on the way home than stay and make it unhappy for you, Margaret! Danny will take up for them, you know, so I can't stay and make trouble. Leave me go, my dear!"
"But if you don't make your mother welcome here," Margaret addressed both Jennie and Sadie, "I shall have to go with her. I can take her to Catherine Hamilton's for the night. Or," she added with sudden inspiration, "to Mrs. Ocksreider's, and ask her if she won't give her a bed until the morning. She shall not take that journey to-night!"
Jennie glared in baffled fury, while Sadie turned white with dismay.
"Danny won't leave you do such an outrageous15 thing!" the elder sister said hoarsely16.
"Daniel can't stop me. Come, mother."
"You don't mean to say you'd do as mean a thing as that—take Mom to Mrs. Ocksreider's!"
"But I am so sure that Mrs. Ocksreider is the very person who would be very glad to receive her for the night."
"You up and tell me to my face you'd disgrace us like that!"
"But where would the disgrace come in?" asked Margaret innocently.
"Where would the disgrace come in?" repeated Jennie hotly. "Don't you see any disgrace in telling Mrs. Ocksreider that we won't leave our mother (even if she is our step-mother) sleep at our place over night?"
"Then you admit that you are acting17 disgracefully in turning her out?"
"You wait till Danny comes home and he'll show you if you can go against me like this in his house!" Jennie violently threatened, more furious than ever at being trapped by her own words. "Now you leave Mom be till I take her out to the car!"
"No, Jennie, if she goes I go with her—to our friend, Mrs. Ocksreider. Therefore, it behooves18 you——"
But it was just at this instant that the sitting-room door opened and Daniel walked into their midst.
"Margaret! I've got an automobile19 at the door. Get your hat——"
He stopped short in astonishment20 at sight of his step-mother, at Margaret's attitude of shielding her against the evidently furious antagonism21 of Jennie and the cold disapproval22 of Sadie.
"Well?" he demanded testily23. "What's up? How did you get up here, mother?"
"Yes, how did she, when you gave her the money to go home yet?" scolded Sadie.
Margaret, leaving the statement of the situation to Jennie, remained silent.
"Who brought you up here?" Daniel inquired of the old woman.
"I come by myself, Danny. I wanted to see your wife and the twinses, and I conceited24 I'd be gone before the girls got home. But I'll go right aways now. I'm sorry I come. I didn't want to make no trouble—I——"
She made a movement from Margaret's side, but the latter clasped her firmly.
"Margaret," commanded Daniel, "let her go."
"I have invited her to spend the night here, Daniel. She is not able to go home to-night."
"I'll take care of that—this is not your affair. Let her alone! Take your hands off her!"
"Will you let her spend the night here?"
"I said I would take care of that. Take your hands off her."
Margaret obeyed.
"Now come here, mother."
Mrs. Leitzel walked feebly toward him, but Margaret walked beside her.
"Now, you see, Danny, how contrary she acts!" Jennie broke forth25. "I wanted to take Mom out to the trolley26 car and Margaret would not leave her come along, when Mom said she wanted to come, too!"
"Well, I'm here now," returned Daniel grimly. "I'll take you to the station, mother," he pronounced conclusively27, taking the old woman's arm.
"Daniel! Your mother can't go home alone this evening! It will be cruel of you to send her!"
Daniel, ignoring her, led his mother to the hall.
"I tell you I'm going to stop this cruelty!" cried Margaret, darting28 upstairs to get her wraps.
She was down again almost immediately, her coat over her arm, but when she reached the sidewalk the automobile containing her husband and his mother was beyond her reach.
"I may be able to get to the station before that five o'clock train!" she thought, starting almost on a run to go the length of the town to the depot, putting on her coat and gloves as she went. "I believe his mother will die on the way if she goes, and has to walk that half-mile alone in the dark, after being subjected to all this horrible scene! Oh, my God! What people they are!"
She realized, on her way, that her purse was empty, her monthly allowance having been spent, and that she had not even money for trolley car fares—a serious handicap in her efforts to help Mrs. Leitzel.
When, panting for breath, a sharp pain in her side, she reached the station, the train to Martz was just pulling out.
Daniel, smiling blandly29, came toward her along the platform.
"God help me!" was the cry of her heart, "that I cannot even hate him—he is too utterly30 pitiable! If I could hate him, there might be some hope for us!"
"Want to take a little ride, my dear?" he inquired, waving his hand to the waiting automobile.
"Take me home," she returned weakly, feeling suddenly collapsed31 and helpless.
"You know," he said as he helped her into the car, "you ought not to excite yourself like this—it's bad for Daniel Junior's milk—about something, too, that is no concern of yours. And I want to warn you also," he added, lowering his voice so that the chauffeur32 might not hear him, as the car turned into the street, "that you've got to refrain from offending Jennie and Sadie so constantly. They have a lot of money to leave to our children. Keep on offending them as you are doing and they'll will all they have to Hiram's children!" said Daniel in a tone that expressed all the horror that such a possibility contained for him.
Margaret did not reply.
"You get me?" Daniel inquired.
"Considerations like that, Daniel, have never entered into my philosophy of life, thank God!"
"Margaret, you really must break yourself of this dreadful habit of swearing! It's so unladylike! And so unchristian!"
"Oh, my good Lord, Daniel! Don't dare to talk to me about anything's being 'unchristian,' when you have just done a cruel, cruel thing to your aged34, helpless mother! I don't profess35 and loudly flaunt36 my 'Christian33 principles,' but I do believe in the Golden Rule. Evidently you don't. Don't speak to me!"
"Hoity-toity! Cut out these tantrums, Margaret; they're bad for the boy, you know."
"Why don't you tell the Y.W.C.A. about your smart 'deal' with your tenant37, George Trout38, and your treatment of your step-mother? Maybe they'd send you another congratulatory letter that you could have published in the Intelligencer."
"You heed39 my warning about offending Jennie and Sadie," was Daniel's reply.
"At the time of your father's death was the title of the farm at Martz vested absolutely in him?"
Margaret had the satisfaction of seeing Daniel start and turn red at her question, as he turned abruptly and looked at her.
"What makes you ask that?" he nervously40 demanded.
"Was it?" she repeated.
"Why do you wish to know?"
"It was," she affirmed.
"How do you know?" he sharply questioned.
"That same old Woman's Intuition."
"I insist on your answering me intelligibly41! What do you know of business matters like that anyhow?"
"Not much, but a little."
"Understand, Margaret, once and for all, that my business affairs and that of my folks are no least concern of yours!"
"Yours are."
"They are not!"
"Oh, yes, they are, Daniel. You and I are life partners and I am the mother of your heirs. Therefore, I have everything to do with your business. Neither I nor my children shall live on stolen money."
"Stolen money! You talk to me of 'stolen money,' when I stand in this community as the one honest, upright, Christian lawyer! Gracious, Margaret, I certainly expected that after the children were born I'd have back again the sweet girl I married! I'm beginning to feel that I've been awfully42 taken in!"
Margaret leaned back in the automobile, closed her eyes, and did not answer. During the remainder of the ride the silence between them was unbroken.
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1
grudgingly
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2
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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3
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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4
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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5
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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6
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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7
coaxing
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
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8
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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9
peremptorily
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| adv.紧急地，不容分说地，专横地 | |
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10
linens
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| n.亚麻布( linen的名词复数 )；家庭日用织品 | |
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11
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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12
meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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13
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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14
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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15
outrageous
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| adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的 | |
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16
hoarsely
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| adv.嘶哑地 | |
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17
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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18
behooves
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| n.利益，好处( behoof的名词复数 )v.适宜( behoove的第三人称单数 ) | |
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19
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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20
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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21
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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22
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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23
testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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24
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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25
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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26
trolley
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| n.手推车，台车；无轨电车；有轨电车 | |
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27
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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28
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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29
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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30
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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31
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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32
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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33
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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34
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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35
profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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36
flaunt
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| vt.夸耀，夸饰 | |
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37
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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38
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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39
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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40
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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41
intelligibly
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| adv.可理解地，明了地，清晰地 | |
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42
awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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