sisters-in-law some time before she wrote it, but the idea of parting
from her mother never occurred to Henrietta until Miss Stubb alarmed
her.

'Your mother,' she said poetically, 'makes me think of snow melting
before the sun. In fact, I can't look at her without thinking of snow
and snowdrops and--and graves. Last spring I said to Mrs. Banks, "She
won't see the leaves fall," I said, and Mrs. Banks agreed. She has
been spared, but take care of her in these cold winds, Miss Henrietta,
dear.'

'She has a cold, only a cold,' Henrietta said in a dead voice, and she
went upstairs. Her mother was in bed, and Henrietta looked down at the
thin, pretty face. 'How ill are you?' she asked in a threatening
manner. 'Tell me how ill you are.'

'I've only got a cold, Henry dear. I shall be up to-morrow.'

'Promise you won't be really ill.'

'Why should I be?'

'It's Miss Stubb--saying things.'

'Women chatter,' Mrs. Mallett said. 'If it's not scandal, it's an
illness. You ought to know that.'

'They might leave you alone, anyway.'

'Yes, I wish they would,' Mrs. Mallett said faintly, and dropped back