But we have been delayed very pleasantly in one respect;" she looked smilingly and significantly at Mrs.Maxwell.
All the other ladies stared.

Mrs.Maxwell, standing in their midst, with a large cambric apron over her dress, and a powder of flour on one cheek, looked wonderingly back at the minister's wife.
"I suppose you all know what I mean ?" said Mrs.Wheeler, still smiling.

"I suppose Mrs.Maxwell has not kept the glad tidings to herself." In spite of her smiling face, there was a slight doubt and hesitancy in her manner.
Mrs.Maxwell's old face suddenly paled, and at the same time grew alert.

Her black eyes, on Mrs.Wheeler's face, were sharply bright.
"Mebbe I have, an' mebbe I ain't," said she, and she smiled too.
"Well," said the minister's wife, "I told Flora that her mother must be a brave woman to invite company to tea the afternoon her daughter was married, and I thought we all ought to appreciate it." The other women gasped.

Mrs.Maxwell's face was yellow-white in its framework of curls; there was a curious noise in her throat, like a premonitory click of a clock before striking.
"Well," said she, "Flora 'd had this day set for the weddin' for six months.