'
"Mrs. Dennison looked at her sister, then she looked at me, then
back at her sister again, and Mrs. Bird spoke as if she had been
asked a question.
"'Yes,' says she, 'I do think Miss Arms ought to be told--that is,
I think she ought to be told all we know ourselves.'
"'That isn't much,' said Mrs. Dennison with a dying-away sort of
sigh. She looked as if she might faint away again any minute. She
was a real delicate-looking woman, but it turned out she was a good
deal stronger than poor Mrs. Bird.
"'No, there isn't much we do know,' says Mrs. Bird, 'but what
little there is she ought to know. I felt as if she ought to when
she first came here.'
"'Well, I didn't feel quite right about it,' said Mrs. Dennison,
'but I kept hoping it might stop, and any way, that it might never
trouble her, and you had put so much in the house, and we needed
the money, and I didn't know but she might be nervous and think she
couldn't come, and I didn't want to take a man boarder.'
"'And aside from the money, we were very anxious to have you come,
my dear,' says Mrs. Bird.
"'Yes,' says Mrs. Dennison, 'we wanted the young company in the
house; we were lonesome, and we both of us took a great liking to
you the minute we set eyes on you.
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