quailed.

"I thought at first I wouldn't," her mother continued, pitilessly, "but
I see to-night how things are goin'."

"What do you mean by that, mother?"

"I see that you are fool enough to get to likin' a man that has got the
gift of the gab, and that you think is good-lookin', and that wears
clothes made in the city, better than a good honest feller that we have
all known about ever since he was born, and that ain't got no outlandish
blood in him, neither."

"Mother!"

"You needn't say mother that way. I ain't a fool, if I haven't been to
school like some folks, and I see the way you two looked at each other
to-night right before that poor man that has been comin' here steady and
means honorable."

"Nobody asked or wanted him to come," said Sarah.

"Maybe you'll change your mind when you hear what I've got to tell you.
And I'm goin' to tell you. _Hyacinthus Ware has got a woman livin' over
there in that house._" Sarah turned ghastly pale, but she spoke firmly.
"You mean he is married?" she said.

"I dun'no' whether he is married or not, but there is a woman livin'
there."