"There's too much fuss anyway over our precious carcasses! And you fellows encourage it," Dr. Lavendar grumbled. Then he said he wished he knew more about Mrs. Richie. "I ask you for information and all you say is that she's good-looking, and her brother doesn't take your pills." William laughed. "She doesn't come to church very regularly, and she never stops afterwards to talk," Dr. Lavendar ruminated. "Well, she lives 'way up there on the hill road--" "Yes, she does live pretty far out of town," Dr. Lavendar admitted, "but that's not a reason for not being neighborly after church." "She's shy," said William King, "that's all. Shyness isn't anything very wrong. And she's mighty pleasant when she does talk to you. I tell you Dr. Lavendar, pleasantness goes a good way in this world. I'd say it was better than goodness--only they are the same thing." "No, they're not," said Dr. Lavendar. "I grant she doesn't belong to the sewing society," William said grinning. "Martha says that some of the ladies say she doesn't show proper grief for her husband. She actually smiles sometimes! They say that if the Lord were to remove _their_ beloved husbands, they would never smile again." "William," said Dr. Lavendar chuckling, "I begin to like your widow." "She's not my widow, thank you! But she's a nice woman, and she must be pretty lonely up there all by herself." "Wish I had gone in to see her this afternoon," the old man said thoughtfully. "As you say she may be a suitable person to take this little boy. I wonder if she's going to stay in Old Chester?" "Sam Wright says she has spoken to him of buying the house. That looks as if she meant to settle down. Did you know that Sam's Sam is casting sheep's eyes at her?" "Why, she's old enough to be his mother!" said Dr. Lavendar. "Oh, no. Sam's Sam is twenty-three, and one of my patients says that Mrs. Richie will never see forty-five again. Which leads me to conclude that she's about thirty." "Of course she doesn't encourage him?" Dr. Lavendar said anxiously. "She lets him come to see her, and she took him out once in that wicker-work vehicle she has--looks like a clothes-basket on wheels. And she provides the clothes to put into it. I'm told they're beautiful; but that no truly pious female would be willing to decorate poor flesh and blood with such finery. I'm told--" "William! Is this the way I've brought you up? To pander to my besetting sin? Hold your tongue!" Dr. Lavendar rose chuckling, and stood in front of the fireplace, gathering the tails of his flowered cashmere dressing-gown under his arms. "But Willy I hope Sam isn't really smitten? You never can tell what that boy will do." "Yes, he's a hair-trigger," the doctor agreed, "a hair-trigger! And his father understands him about as well as--as Danny there understands Hebrew! I think it's a case of Samuel and his father over again. Dr. Lavendar, do you suppose anybody will ever know what those two quarrelled about?" "Probably not."