Hitching her roan mare in front of a
confectionery shop, she entered for refreshment.
Seated at a little table in the back room, with a cup of tea and some
sandwiches before her, Miss Panney took more time over her slight meal
than any previous customer had ever occupied in disposing of a similar
repast, at least so the girl at the counter believed and averred to the
colored man who did outside errands. The girl thought that the old lady's
deliberate method of eating proceeded from her want of teeth; but the man
who had waited at dinners where Miss Panney was a guest contemptuously
repudiated this assumption.
"I've seen her eat," said he, "and she's never behind nobody. She's got
all the teeth she wants for bitin'."
"Then why doesn't she get through?" asked the girl. "When is she ever
going to leave that table?"
"When she gits ready," answered the man; "that's the time Miss Panney
does everything."
Sipping her tea and nibbling her sandwich, Miss Panney considered the
situation. It would be, of course, a difficult thing to get that young
man to visit his sister at Barport.
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