"No-o--, but she'd better sense, she knows _me_--she ain't--mercy me,
Stella! Just look at that child tumbling in the mud! You, Stella, come
here, I say! Look at you now, there--and there--and there?"
The luckless Stella having been soundly cuffed, and sent whimpering in
the back-yard, Mrs. Tuckley continued,
"Yes as I was saying, 'course, taint none o' my business, but I always
did wonder how them Harts do keep up. Why, them girls dress just as fine
as any lady on the Avenue and that there Lillian wears real diamond
ear-rings. 'Pears mighty, mighty funny to me, and Lord the airs they do
put on! Holdin' up their heads like nobody's good enough to speak to. I
don't like to talk about people, you know, yourself, Mrs. Luke I never
speak about anybody, but mark my word, girls that cut up capers like
them Hartses' girls never come to any good."
Mrs. Luke heaved a deep sigh of appreciation at the wisdom of her
neighbor, but before she could reply a re-inforcement in the person of
little Mrs. Peters, apron over her head, hands shrivelled and soap-sudsy
from washing, appeared.
"Did you ever see the like?" she asked in her usual, rapid breathless
way. "Why, my Louis says they're putting canvass cloths on the floor,
and taking down the bed in the back-room; and putting greenery and such
like trash about.
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