"By Pastor Brown, on Saturday night, in Pastor's study, Nina Adams and
Councilman Simpkins."
"Why!" said Lady Gadsby, laughing, "Nina sat on this porch only last
month, talking about Old Bill, but saying nothing about this! I'm going
right around to hug that darling woman; for _that_ is what I call
_tact_."
So, as Nina and our Lady sat talking, Nina said:
"You know that Bill and I, growing up from kids in school, always got
along grandly; no childhood spats; but, still it was no 'crush' such
as Youth falls into. As Bill got out of high school, I still had two
rooms to go through. You also know that I wasn't a 'Miss' for long
from graduation day. But Irving Adams was lost in that awful 'Titanic'
calamity, and I brought up my baby in my widowhood. Bill was always
sympathizing and patronizing, though all Branton Hills thought him a
cast-iron grouch. But a public man is not always stiff and hard in his
off hours; and Bill and I, slowly but gradually finding many a happy
hour could--
"All right, you grand, luscious thing!!" and Lady Gadsby and Nina sat
laughing on a couch, as in old, old school days. "And," said Nina,
happily; "poor Bill's upstairs, now, putting his things around to suit
him. Living for so long in a small lodging all his things staid in a
trunk. A lodging-room always has various folks around, you know, and a
man don't lay his things out as in his _own_ room. So--"
"Nina," said Lady Gadsby; "do you know what brought him out of his old
shut-in way of looking at things?"
"From just a word or two Bill drops, occasionally, I think that a child
is--"
And Lady Gadsby, said; "You know our Good Book's saying about: 'And a
tiny child shall----'"