In vain she strove to assure herself.
Joe, Nourse and then Dwight, one after the other, had all bowed down before her.

"Oh, that was very simple!" she thought.

"They're only men!" It would be a woman this time, and one of the most brilliant kind.
"What a dull little fool she'll find me, in spite of all I do or say!" It would be all the more difficult because Mrs.Crothers was older.
"That will count against me.

No doubt she's beginning to show her age; and I'm young, and she doesn't want any young things to come snooping about her husband! Then there's Amy and the quarrel they had, and she'll put me and Amy in the same class! I'll have all that to fight against!" The idea of settling everything all in one brief encounter.
Oh, it was too maddening! "Now, Ethel Lanier, for goodness' sake stop fidgeting like a nervous old maid! This isn't the minister coming to call!" On the day before the expected call, Ethel was just on the point of going out for the afternoon to do some shopping and shake off these silly fears, when the telephone rang and a few moments later the maid came in and told her there was a visitor downstairs.

In an instant with a rush of excitement Ethel knew it was Sally at last.