But, as I was saying, our dear Caroline has--"
"Thank you, ma'am. I hope I don't groan too loud. Do you know, I believe
climate has a bearin' on duty, same as it has on rheumatics. I s'pose
you city folks"--and there was almost contempt in the words--"are sort
of Christian Science, and figger it's an 'error'--hey? Somethin' to be
forgot."
The lady resented the interruption, and the contempt nettled her.
"Not at all!" she retorted. "We city dwellers have our duties, also."
"Is that a fact? I want to know!"
"Certainly it is a fact," tartly. "I have my duties and many of them."
"Um! So? Well, I s'pose you do feel you must dress just so, and live
just so, and do just such and such things. If you call those duties,
why--"
"I do. What else are they, pray?"
Mrs. Dunn was finding it difficult to keep her temper. To be catechised
in this contemptuously lofty manner by one to whom she considered
herself so immensely superior, was too much. She forgot the careful plan
of campaign which she had intended to follow in this interview, and now
interrupted in her turn. And Captain Elisha, who also was something of a
strategist, smiled at the fire.
"We do have our social duties, our duties to society," snapped the
widow, hotly. "They are necessary ones.
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