Katherine, Chapters XVII-XX [pp. 394-416]

396 KATKARIKE. [Dec.,
upon Mrs. Danforth's attention when he again visited her after
an interval of a week or two which was intenJed to mark his
sense of her unwisdom in rejecting counsel. Though he had
heard her express her intention of parting with her private property, and knew she meant it at the moment, he thought it not
unlikely that she would listen to reason in the end, and certain,
in any case, that her determination was one which would require
time to carry into effect. It happened, however, that an offer
had been made for her house some months before, which her,
husband had decided to reject on the ground that the property
was growing in value every year. Under the sting of pride,
wounded by wh~t she had resented as an imputation on his,,
honesty, Mrs. Danforth recalled this proposition and wrote at
once to invite its renewal and express her wish to make the
transfer without delay. The natural c6nsequence came in the
shape of a lowered offer, nicely adjusted to the anxiety indicated by her note, but Mrs. Danforth closed with it at once. Mr.
Warren found the affair already terminated, the importunate
creditor paid in full, and the widow quite unconscious that she
had been imprudent or unjust toward either her husband's creditors or herself. She admitted her haste and folly when once
persuaded that advantage had been taken of her need and her
ignorance of business, but she could never be brought to see that
she had failed in justice.
"Since it was my own," she said, "1 surely had a right to do
what I liked with it. I don't see that any one else is wronged
merely because Peggy Smith's mouth was stopped now instead
of eighteen months from now."
"Peggy Smith's mouth was safe enough," grumbled her
brother-in-law, "without your emptying your own and Kitty's
to fill it. I didn't know you were so fond of that gossiping old
granny. I shouldn't have thought her your sort at all."
"Fond of her! She would never have been paid at all if my
liking were the measure of her claim. I knew her long tongue
of old, and I never wanted James to have anything to do with
her money. He has been paying her eight per cent. on her five
thousand dollars for the last six years, because she made such a
poor face and said she couldn't manage to live without getting
as much as that. It was pure charity on his part. I have heard
him say her account was twice as much bother as it was worth,
for she was always coming to fuss about it."
"Charity of that sort is what I call arrant nonsense! And
then to see you crown the whole thing out of sheer pride! I