I kept my eyes on that hole in the fence. I was setting there fixing up
the bricks, ready to put them in, when I heard some one talking on the
other side of the fence. You couldn't see nobody through the fence, no
more'n if they was a thousand miles away; but you could hear 'em talk,
all right, there, through the hole. I could tell who one of 'em was--it
was the voice of Old Lady Wisner. She had the sort of a voice a woman
has who has got a nose like a eagle. But I couldn't tell who she was
talking to, for nobody seemed to answer much at first.
"James," says she--"James, what are you doing there?"
No one answered, but I felt sure now she was talking to their gardener.
So he was home!
"Who made that hole? Who has done this, James?" says she again. "Who
made that hole in the wall?"
Still, he didn't answer none; and she went on:
"I see! It must of been some of them awful Wrights that live acrost
there. How dare they break through our fence? I'll have them sued!"
"Oh, no, you won't. It was done from this side--I can tell you that."
I knew his voice. It was him.
"Whoever did it," he went on, "I'm going to close it up. I saw their dog
in our yard the other day. Did you see him in here today?"
"No--that same awful little cur?" says she. "They are the worst people,
James! I certainly am glad you want nothing to do with them, even their
dog. But, of course, you couldn't."
"No; it seemed not," says he.
"What do you mean?" says she, harshlike. "As for that maid of theirs, I
was inexpressibly shocked, James, when I found that you so far forgot
yourself--"
"I wouldn't say any more," says he.
"I shall say all I like, and you'll please remember who you are! The
David Wisners can't afford to have it understood that they associate any
way whatsoever with the Wright family. Not even our servants can visit
acrost. I've been suspecting for some time."
"Well, that's plain enough," says he. "I don't see any use trying to
make it any plainer. There's no use rubbing it in."
"If I had a servant," says she, right pointed, "who'd look at the best
of them I'd discharge him as soon as I knew it. I've got my eye on Emmy,
my second-floor maid, too. All I can say is, you'd all better be more
careful, or, the first thing some of you know----"
"Naturally," says he, "I can imagine that," says he. "It's hell to
belong to the lower classes!"
"What do you mean, James?" says she, solemn, "I'll not have profanity
from you! Besides, you talk like a socialist person, and I'll not have
that."
"Socialist, eh? Well, I'll admit, if I had all the money in the world,"
says he, "no wall nor bars would make any difference to me. Nor they
wouldn't when I didn't have."
"James, continually you shock me beyond words!" says she, gasping. "What
words from one in your position in life!"
He didn't say much then, but only sort of growled, like he was mad.
"James," says she, "what on earth are you doing--what's that you're
eating?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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