Her dreams dropped suddenly, with broken wings, in their flight, for
her stepmother, a small sickly woman, with a twisted smile, looked out
through the dining-room window, and remarked facetiously:
"You all don't look much like a co'tin couple to my eyes."
"I've been admiring her butter," replied Abel, who was always unduly
regardful of his English in the presence of Mrs. Hatch.
"She's a good hand at butter when she chooses to be, but she has her ups
and downs like the rest of us."
"All of us have them, I suppose," he rejoined, and Mrs. Hatch drew in
her head.
"I never imagined that you got put out, Judy," he said, forgetting the
tears that had led him to his sacrifice; "you always seem so quiet and
sober."
She glanced up, for there was a sound of wheels on the road, and Mr.
Mullen drove by again, sitting very erect, and uncovering, with a
graceful bend, to some one who was visible at the front. Her face
flushed suddenly to the colour of the brickdust, and she felt that
the confusion in her soul must fill the universe with noise. Quiet and
sober, indeed, if he could only have heard it!
But Abel was busy with his own problems, while his gaze followed Mr.
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