In the light of this interview there would seem to be little of the miraculous in the appearance of Ben Evans at the Longhorn bosque that same day, but so his arrival seemed to Mrs. Blakely, who cried triumphantly when she saw him:
"I knowed it! Just as shore as I'm standin' here I knowed he'd come! I wished him here, honey! All day long I been sayin' to myself, 'Come along, Ben Evans—make haste now.' Edie," Mrs. Blakely shifted her snuff-stick and said with solemn conviction, "I got a powerful strong will when I sets out to use it. If I weren't a good woman and the mother of a fambly, I'd be a reg'lar Cleopatra—destroyin' of men."
"Ma," Edith said impatiently, "you been sittin' in flour or something; your skirt looks awful. Do change it before Ben comes in."
With a deft twist the siren-that-might-have-been merely turned her apron around and wore it behind. Peering eagerly through the window—
"He's brought his bed, Edie, he aims to visit a spell! Don't you tell him nothin' about my givin' him absent treatments."
