Sewell, who went to find her. She found her still better than
before, and Statira frankly accounted for her absence by saying that
'Manda thought she had better not come any more till Mrs. Sewell
returned some of her calls. She laughed, and then she said--
"I don't know as you'd found me here if you'd come much later.
'Manda Grier don't want I should be here in the east winds, now it's
coming spring so soon; and she's heard of a chance at a box factory
in Philadelphia. She wants I should go there with her, and I don't
know but what it _would_ be about the best thing."
Mrs. Sewell could not deny the good sense of the plan, though she
was sensible of liking Statira less and less for it.
The girl continued: "Lem--Mr. Barker, I _should_ say--wants I
should come up _there_, out the east winds. But 'Manda Grier
she's opposed to it: she thinks I'd ought to have more of a mild
climate, and he better come down there and get a school if he wants
me too," Statira broke into an impartial little titter. "I'm sure I
don't know which of 'em 'll win the day!"
Mrs. Sewell's report of this speech brought a radiant smile of
relief to Sewell's face. "Ah, well, then! That settles it! I feel
perfectly sure that 'Manda Grier will win the day. That poor, sick,
flimsy little Statira is completely under 'Manda Grier's thumb, and
will do just what she says, now that there's no direct appeal from
her will to Barker's; they will never be married.
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