Mrs. Lathrop ceased to rub her eyes, and a vague apprehension opened them effectually instead. "I presume, if you saw him at all, you saw how long he stayed?" "Yes, I--" "All of two hours, an' his talk was as dumfounderin' on me as it will be on you. I 'd never thought o' any such doin's in this direction. I always looked on as a complete outsider, did n't you?" "I don't un--" Susan had shed her jacket and cap while talking; she now took a chair and surveyed her friend with the air of one who has pain to inflict and yet is firm. Mrs. Lathrop looked frankly troubled. "Well, Mrs. Lathrop, you 'd ought to know me well enough, after all these years, to know as I shall make this as easy as I can for you. Perhaps the best way 'll be to go 'way back to the beginnin' an' speak o' when Mrs. White died. It'll be a proper leadin' up, for if she had n't died, he 'd never 'a' come to see me this afternoon, an' I 'd never 'a' come to see you to-night. Howsumsever, she did die; an', bein' dead, I will say for her husband as you don't find chick or child in town to deny as a nicer, tidier, more biddable little man never lived; 'n' 's far as my personal feelin's go, I should think 't any woman might consider it nothin' but a joy to get a man 's is always so long on the door-mat 'n' so busy with his tie 's the deacon is. He got some wore out toward the last o' her illness, for she was give' up in September 'n' died in July; but even then I 've heard Mrs. Allen say 's it was jus' pretty to see him putterin' aroun' busy 's a bee, tryin' to keep dusted up for the funeral any minute." Susan paused to sigh. "Seems like she did n't die but yesterday," she said reminiscently; "don't seem like it can possibly be over a year. I never can but remember them last days: they stand out afore me like a needle in a camel's eye. Nobody could n't say 's everythin' was n't done; they had two doctors 'n' a bill 't the drug-store, but the end come at last. She begin to sink 'n' sink, 'n' young Dr. Brown said that way o' sinkin' away was always, to his mind, one o' the most unfortunate features o' dyin'. He said he knowed lots o' people 's 'd be alive 'n' well now if they could just o' been kept from that sinkin' away. Old Dr. Carter told Mrs. Jilkins his theory was 't while the pulse beats there 's life; but even he had to admit 's Mrs. White was about beat out. 'N' it was so, too; for she died while they was talkin', 'n' the deacon just beginnin' on cleanin' the pantry shelves. He had to put all the dishes back on top o' the old papers; 'n' any one could see how hard it was for him, for he 'd counted on havin' everythin' spick 'n' span at the end.