But then why had Hetta been so snappish?
"I'm sure he's a wolf;" thought Hetta as she went to bed.
"What a very clever young man he is!" thought Susan to herself as
she pulled the warm clothes round about her shoulders and ears.
"Well that certainly was an improvement," thought Aaron as he went
through the same operation, with a stronger feeling of self-
approbation than he had enjoyed for some time past.
In the course of the next fortnight the family arrangements all
altered themselves. Unless when Beckard was there Aaron would sit
in the widow's place, the widow would take Susan's chair, and the
two girls would be opposite. And then Dunn would read to them; not
sermons, but passages from Shakspeare, and Byron, and Longfellow.
"He reads much better than Mr. Beckard," Susan had said one night.
"Of course you're a competent judge!" had been Hetta's retort. "I
mean that I like it better," said Susan. "It's well that all people
don't think alike," replied Hetta.
And then there was a deal of talking. The widow herself, as
unconscious in this respect as her youngest daughter, certainly did
find that a little variety was agreeable on those long winter
nights; and talked herself with unaccustomed freedom. And Beckard
came there oftener and talked very much.
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