It sounded like an oath to Mrs.Field, but she thought she must be mistaken.

She had never in her life heard many oaths, and when she did had never been able to believe her ears.
"I hope you didn't hurt you," said she, deprecatingly, stepping forward.
"I am not hurt, thank you." But the twinge in the lawyer's ankle was confirming his resolution to say nothing more to her on the subject of his regret and unwillingness that she should choose to refuse his hospitality, and spend such a lonely and uncomfortable night.

"I won't say another word to her about it," he declared to himself.

So he simply made arrangements with her for a meeting at his office the next morning to attend to the business for which there had been no time to-night, and took his leave.
"I never saw such a woman," was his conclusion of the story, which he related to his sister upon his return home.

His sister was a widow, and just then her married daughter and two children were visiting her.
"I wish you'd let me know she wa'n't comin'," said she.