You'll have the whole town talking about how I'm throwing myself at Sam's head--and that I'm jealous of Susan." Mrs.Warham said, "Never mind" into the telephone sender and hung up the receiver.

She was frightened, but not convinced.
Hers was a slow, old-fashioned mind, and to it the scheme it had worked out seemed a model of skillful duplicity.

But Ruth, of the younger and subtler generation, realized instantly how transparent the thing was.

Mrs.Warham was abashed but not angered by her daughter's curt contempt.
"It's the only way I can think of," said she.

"And I still don't see----" "Of course you don't," cut in Ruth, ruffled by the perilously narrow escape from being the laughing stock of the town.