"I don't do it for fun," Mrs. Quincy snapped. "But I ain't provided with a servant that's worth her salt. If anybody's dependent, like I am, on a whipper-snapper son-inlaw, that ain't got affection enough for me to spend an hour a week with me--why, I guess I have to pinch and scrape wherever I can. No knowin' when I'll git more. I've worked hard all my life for other folks, Mrs. Lenox. You can see by my hands how I've worked. And what do I get for it? A stranger like you is kinder to me than my own flesh and blood. And I know well enough that if Richard Percival throws me a crust, it's only because he would be ashamed to have folks say his mother-in-law was starving. Oh, I let him know that I see through him whenever he comes near me--which ain't very often. And Lena goes days and days and never comes to see me." Her voice and her garrulity were rising, but here a sob gave pause, and Mrs. Lenox rushed in, repressing an impulse to say a word on the elementary laws of give and take in love. "Well, I think you are very sensible to do the washing. One must have some occupation to fill the days, mustn't one? And there aren't many things, when one is tied to the house. If to-morrow is warm, I wonder if you would feel up to a little drive in the afternoon?" "I shouldn't be surprised if I would." "And do you care for reading? I've brought you a rather clever little story. I see you have all the magazines." "Yes, Lena sends 'em. She thinks they'll occupy me and save her the trouble of comin' herself. But, good land, I don't care for 'em beyond lookin' at the pictures and the advertisements--except the _Ladies' Home Companion_. That has good recipes in it; only Sarah can't make nothin' that's fit to eat. But I did read that thing in the _Chatterer_ about Miss Elton. You've seen it, of course!"--and she laughed with cheerful malice and licked her lips like a cat. "About Miss Elton? In the _Chatterer_? I haven't the least idea of what you are talking," said Mrs. Lenox in a dazed way. "It's over there," returned the lady, with a comprehensive wave of the thumb. "You can read it. Lena said it couldn't be anybody else." Mrs. Lenox rose and took the magazine from the table. She walked over to the window and deliberately turned her back on her hostess. Her hands shook a little as she turned page after page till her eyes fell on this little paragraph.