" Then, with a glance of disgust at
the mountain of old letters and papers piled upon the top of the
desk where his friend was at work, he added: "What do you clean
that desk of yours with--a shovel?"
The slow smile drifted across the Winslow face. "I cal'late that's
what I should have to use, Sam," he drawled, "if I ever cleaned
it."
The captain and the widow agreed upon thirty-five dollars a month.
It developed that she owned their former house in Middleford and
that the latter had been rented for a very much higher rent. "My
furniture," she added, "that which I did not sell when we gave up
housekeeping, is stored with a friend there. I know it is
extravagant, my hiring a furnished house, but I'm sure Mr. Winslow
wouldn't let this one unfurnished and, besides, it would be a crime
to disturb furniture and rooms which fit each other as these do.
And, after all, at the end of a year I may wish to leave Orham. Of
course I hope I shall not, but I may."
Captain Sam would have asked questions concerning her life in
Middleford, in fact he did ask a few, but the answers he received
were unsatisfactory. Mrs. Armstrong evidently did not care to talk
on the subject. The captain thought her attitude a little odd, but
decided that the tragedy of her husband's death must be the cause
of her reticence. Her parting remarks on this occasion furnished
an explanation.
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