"My, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Todd. "I couldn't ha' done it
myself, I've got to own it."
"I was much pleased to have it off my mind," said Mrs.
Blackett, humbly; "the more so because along at the first of the
next week I wasn't very well. I suppose it may have been the
change of weather."
Mrs. Todd could not resist a significant glance at me, but,
with charming sympathy, she forbore to point the lesson or to
connect this illness with its apparent cause. She loomed larger
than ever in the little old-fashioned best room, with its few
pieces of good furniture and pictures of national interest. The
green paper curtains were stamped with conventional landscapes of
a foreign order,--castles on inaccessible crags, and lovely lakes
with steep wooded shores; under-foot the treasured carpet was
covered thick with home-made rugs. There were empty glass lamps
and crystallized bouquets of grass and some fine shells on the
narrow mantelpiece.
"I was married in this room," said Mrs. Todd unexpectedly; and
I heard her give a sigh after she had spoken, as if she could not
help the touch of regret that would forever come with all her
thoughts of happiness.
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