He had a curiously impersonal manner of dealing with women, being wont to say that only a man who expected good sense in womenkind was surprised when he did not find it.
"I ain't goin' to put two mortgages on this place," said Ann, fronting him with the utter stupidity of obstinacy.
"Let me explain it to you, Mrs.Edwards," said Eliphalet Means, with no impatience.

He regarded a woman as so incontrovertibly a patience-tryer, from the laws of creation, that he would as soon have waxed impatient with the structural order of things.

He endeavored to explain matters with imperturbable persistency, but Ann was still unconvinced.
"I ain't goin' to sign my name to any other mortgage," said she.
Jerome, who had stood listening in the door, slid up to his mother and touched her arm.

"Oh, mother," he whispered, "I know all about it--it's all right!" Ann gave him a thrust with a little sharp elbow.

"What do you know about it ?" she cried.