Jest as he begun
taperin' off with you he tapered on with her. I don't reckon you
hardly remember when he come heer last, do you? Ab Lithicum's as big a
fool as yore mother was in not callin' a halt. Jest let a man have a
little property, an' be a peg or two higher as to family connections,
an' he kin ride dry-shod over a whole community. He's goin' thar
to-night. Mis' Simpkins was at Lithicum's when a nigger fetched the
note. Lizzie was axin' 'er what to put on. She's got a sight o' duds.
They say it's jest old dresses that her cousins in town got tired o'
wearin', but they are ahead o' anything in the finery line out heer."
A look of wretched conviction stamped itself on the girl's delicate
features. Slowly she turned to pick up her flowers, and went with them
to the mantel-piece. There was an empty vase half filled with water,
and into it she tried to place the stems, but they seemed hard to
manage in her quivering fingers, and she finally took the flowers to
her own room across the passage. They heard the sagging door scrape
the floor as she closed it after her.
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