[_They go in the other room; reappear, MRS. PETERS carrying a dress and skirt, MRS. HALE following with a pair of shoes._ MRS. PETERS My, it’s cold in there. [_She puts the clothes on the big table, and hurries to the stove._ MRS. HALE [_Examining the skirt._] Wright was close. I think maybe that’s why she kept so much to herself. She didn’t even belong to the Ladies Aid. I suppose she felt she couldn’t do her part, and then you don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby. She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that--oh, that was thirty years ago. This all you was to take in? MRS. PETERS She said she wanted an apron. Funny thing to want, for there isn’t much to get you dirty in jail, goodness knows. But I suppose just to make her feel more natural. She said they was in the top drawer in this cupboard. Yes, here. And then her little shawl that always hung behind the door. [_Opens stair door and looks._] Yes, here it is. [_Quickly shuts door leading upstairs._ MRS. HALE [_Abruptly moving toward her._] Mrs. Peters? MRS. PETERS Yes, Mrs. Hale? MRS. HALE Do you think she did it? MRS. PETERS [_In a frightened voice._] Oh, I don’t know. MRS. HALE Well, I don’t think she did. Asking for an apron and her little shawl. Worrying about her fruit. MRS. PETERS [_Starts to speak, glances up, where footsteps are heard in the room above. In a low voice._] Mr. Peters says it looks bad for her. Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and he’ll make fun of her sayin’ she didn’t wake up. MRS. HALE Well, I guess John Wright didn’t wake when they was slipping that rope under his neck. MRS. PETERS No, it’s strange. It must have been done awful crafty and still. They say it was such a--funny way to kill a man, rigging it all up like that. MRS. HALE That’s just what Mr. Hale said. There was a gun in the house. He says that’s what he can’t understand. MRS. PETERS Mr. Henderson said coming out that what was needed for the case was a motive; something to show anger, or--sudden feeling. MRS. HALE [_Who is standing by the table._] Well, I don’t see any signs of anger around here. [_She puts her hand on the dish towel which lies on the table, stands looking down at table, one half of which is clean, the other half messy._] It’s wiped to here. [_Makes a move as if to finish work, then turns and looks at loaf of bread outside the breadbox. Drops towel. In that voice of coming back to familiar things._] Wonder how they are finding things upstairs. I hope she had it a little more red-up up there. You know, it seems kind of _sneaking_. Locking her up in town and then coming out here and trying to get her own house to turn against her! MRS. PETERS But Mrs. Hale, the law is the law. MRS. HALE I s’pose ’tis. [_Unbuttoning her coat._] Better loosen up your things, Mrs. Peters. You won’t feel them when you go out.