His mind fondled Louella and the live Charley together for a moment, then returned to earlier time. After Mamie, there had been her unmarried sister, Gussie; Charley switched quick.... That scare, when he confided that they were afraid he’d gotten the girl into trouble! False alarm, of course.... And the three Bennet girls--not that they were anything.... His mind lengthened the roll. Muscles cramped with sitting in the one position, he rose awkwardly. To cover the act, he walked over to the mantel, and smelled the flowers. “Pretty,” he grudged. The woman followed slowly, doing over her duty as guide of the occasion. “Those were from Judge O’Rear’s; these, Miss Lunsford.” She named the others, eager to talk, yet letting tone and look lash her forced listener. Her manner was agitated; the hushed watching must be getting on her nerves, he judged. Silently she stood beside him, before that black thing in the middle of the room. She must say something. Her hand reached out and touched it. “Plush,” she said. He nodded. “The best undertaker Norton had.” “It came from him?” “Yes. He won’t have any shiftless funeral,” she concluded with bitterness. They went back to the chairs. The impulse to talk dominated her, and Rice hitched his chair a few steps closer, so that their remarks might be sufficiently low-voiced not to disturb--well, not to disturb what lay in the plush-covered thing. Shivering slightly, she drew hers a bit nearer. “Shiftless,” she had said. He recalled that this was her favorite adjective for him--and he Charley’s side-partner, even best man at the wedding! Never a jaunt or a spree that they had not gone on together, until Charley took a fancy to Louella. That was Charley’s luck again; Tom had known Louella longer, fancied her first ... been mad for her, finally. She was too quiet for Charley then; and sometimes ... sometimes she hadn’t frowned at Tom, when he sat near her, itching and miserable. Of course, if he had spoken, she would have laughed ... with that twisted face of his! So she and Charley had hitched up. At first, Charley had made him come around ... insisted. She let him know soon enough and plain enough, that this was no place for him. “Shiftless,” she’d called him; she said he was too shiftless to marry.... No, she never could have meant that, that he should have spoken. She would have laughed.... Not that! It got worse. She’d scold Charley sharply when he was around. Her hints got too pointed; he’d had the good sense to stay away. Everybody said she had a mean tongue--mean as garbroth.