character and winsome personality we can gather some idea from the
various conversations carried on that day from Portchester Green
to the shipyards in Sutherlandtown.

In Deacon Brainerd's cottage, the discussion was concerning
Agatha's lack of vanity; a virtue not very common at that time
among the women of this busy seaport.

"For a woman so handsome," the good deacon was saying "(and I
think I can safely call her the finest-featured woman who ever
trod these streets), she showed as little interest in dress as
anyone I ever knew. Calico at home and calico at church, yet she
looked as much of a lady in her dark-sprigged gowns as Mrs.
Webster in her silks or Mrs. Parsons in her thousand-dollar
sealskin."

As this was a topic within the scope of his eldest daughter's
intelligence she at once spoke up: "I never thought she needed to
dress so plainly. I don't believe in such a show of poverty
myself. If one is too poor to go decent, all right; but they say
she had more money than most anyone in town. I wonder who is going
to get the benefit of it?"

"Why, Philemon, of course; that is, as long as he lives. He
doubtless had the making of it."

"Is it true that he's gone clean out of his head since her death?"
interposed a neighbour who had happened in.

"So they say. I believe widow Jones has taken him into her house."