Mrs. Langley sat almost erect. When it had happened, Anna did not know, but she noticed now for the first time that the hump was gone. “I don’t want you without him,” she cried, “and I want to know the truth. Why should he be afraid of me after I had done all that?” “Because--O, if everything else was all right, he would be afraid of--your teeth!” the girl cried desperately. “They’re so--far apart--there’s a gap on each side. He hasn’t many, himself, but they’re close up and anyhow he doesn’t know what he looks like. When I hold him up to the mirror, what do you think he does. He looks right at me!” And the girl laughed nervously. It was all she could do to restrain her tears. It seemed to her as if she could not endure it for another minute. But when Mrs. Langley spoke she forgot herself in the great wave of pity that flooded her heart. “Well, I suppose if it’s that, there’s no help for it, and I may as well give up,” the woman said in an old, weary voice. “You feel quite sure, Anna?” “You could have some put in?” Anna suggested colourlessly. Then as she went on, her voice showed the confidence she gained. “You’d be a lot more comfortable, too. The dentist would come over from Wenham, you know. He came way over to the Hollow to draw a tooth for Miss Penny.” For a few moments there was silence. The room was dark now. Anna moved, and Mrs. Langley spoke fretfully. “And you would have me go through all that for a baby, Anna Miller?” “Never. Never in the world. Only--you might do it for other reasons. Mr. Langley might like it,” Anna suggested timidly. His wife was apparently surprised, perhaps startled. As she hadn’t thought of Mr. Langley’s being handsome until Anna recalled it to her mind, so it would not have occurred to her that her personal appearance could be of moment to him. “Why don’t you surprise him?” the girl suggested eagerly. “Pretend you want a tooth pulled or--why need he know about it at all until it’s done? He’s out so much it would be dead easy.” “The excitement would kill me,” remarked Mrs. Langley. “Then I shouldn’t think about it,” said Anna quite as decidedly. “After all, lots of women look older than their husbands. Ma doesn’t, but Mrs. Mudge does and Mrs. Graham--Mabel’s mother--and--no end of others.” Mrs. Langley had nothing to say but her silence seemed eloquent-- fiercely eloquent to Anna, and she took leave hastily, promising to drop in again on Saturday. As she hurried home, she said to herself it was just as if she had sat in a dentist’s chair all afternoon and ached all over now.