Part 7 (1/2)
”What is your opinion?”
”Why, that there is no poor widow in the case at all.”
”Mrs. Little!”
”You needn't look surprised. I'm in earnest. I never had much faith in Mrs. Harding, at the best.”
”I _am_ surprised. If there was no poor widow in the case, what did she want with charity?”
”She has poor relations of her own, for whom, I suppose, she's ashamed to beg. So you see my meaning now.”
”You surely wrong her.”
”Don't believe a word of it. At any rate, take my advice, and be the almoner of your own bounty. When Mrs. Harding comes again, ask her the name of this poor widow, and where she resides. If she gives you a name and residence, go and see for yourself.”
”I will act on your suggestion,” said Mrs. Miller. ”Though I can hardly make up my mind to think so meanly of Mrs. Harding; still, from the impression your words produce, I deem it only prudent to be, as you term it, the almoner of my own bounty.”
The next lady upon whom Mrs. Harding called, was a Mrs. Johns, and in her mind she succeeded in also awakening an interest for the poor widow.
”Call and see me to-morrow,” said Mrs. Johns, ”and I'll have something for you.”
Not long after Mrs. Harding's departure, Mrs. Little called, in her round of gossipping visits, and to her Mrs. Johns mentioned the case of the poor widow, that matter being, for the time, uppermost in her thoughts.
”Mrs. Harding's poor widow, I suppose,” said Mrs. Little, in a half-sneering, half-malicious tone of voice.
Mrs. Johns looked surprised, as a matter of course.
”What do you mean?” she asked.
”Oh, nothing, much. Only I've heard of this dest.i.tute widow before.”
”You have?”
”Yes, and between ourselves,”--the voice of Mrs. Little became low and confidential--”it's the opinion of Mrs. Miller and myself, that there is no poor widow in the case.”
”Mrs. Little! You astonish me! No poor widow in the case! I can't understand this. Mrs. Harding was very clear in her statement. She described the widow's condition, and very much excited my sympathies. What object can she have in view?”
”Mrs. Miller and I think,” said the visitor, ”and with good reason, that this poor widow is only put forward as a cover.”
”As a cover to what?”
”To some charities that she has reasons of her own for not wis.h.i.+ng to make public.”
”Still in the dark. Speak out more plainly.”
”Plainly, then, Mrs. Johns, we have good reasons for believing, Mrs.
Miller and I, that she is begging for some of her own poor relations. Mrs. Miller is going to see if she can find the widow.”
”Indeed! That's another matter altogether. I promised to do something in the case, but shall now decline. I couldn't have believed such a thing of Mrs. Harding! But so it is; you never know people until you find them out.”
”No, indeed, Mrs. Johns. You never spoke a truer word in your life,”