“You just watch, and mark my word. A woman is in this pudding! Old Bill just couldn’t boom out in such a way without having a goal in sight; and I’ll put up a dollar on it.”
And Lucy, also a woman, said smilingly:—
“And I’ll put up a dollar and a half!”
But His Honor and Lady Gadsby, at such talk would look skyward, cough, and say:—
“Possibly a woman; and a mighty young woman, at that.”
Now, if anything will “warm up” a public, it is gossip; particularly if it is about mystifying actions of a public man; and this had soon grown to a point at which a particularly curious man or woman thought of going to Old Bill and boldly asking: “Who is it?” But, as I said, what Councilman Simpkins would say to such “butting in” was known to all Branton Hills. No. Councilman Simpkins could doll up and trot around all that that portly Solon might wish; but, so to say, a sign was always hanging from his coat front, saying:—
“Hands off!!”
****
Nina Adams and Virginia sat on Gadsby’s porch with Nancy and Kathlyn; and Old Bill was up as a topic. Virginia, constantly smiling and inwardly chuckling, hadn’t much to say about our
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