Ruth Herrick's Assignment
charms, and I brought away her best. I felt guilty, but not guilty enough to refuse them. It eased my conscience to leave them here for you."
Mrs. Brandow regarded her with a faint smile. "It had not occurred to me that the old women in this village spend their time in the peaceful pursuit of rose-growing," she remarked. "When I have been escorted back and forth they have been suspended over picket-fences watching me go by. I never saw any roses or any redeeming traits in the inhabitants."
"Perhaps you were too preoccupied to notice them. Are n't you becoming a little morbid under this trouble?"
The newspaper woman was acutely conscious of her daring as she spoke, but the woman before her was plainly not to be approached by ordinary methods. She showed this still more clearly in her reply.
"Perhaps. I have had no desire for self-analysis of late. I used to tear myself up by the roots to watch my own growth, but the process was not pleasant. I am now trying to confine my attention to the things outside
15
