"The brute!" "Yes'm," said Jed, quietly, "that was what he said.

You see," with an apologetic twitch of the lip, "it came kind of sudden to me and-- and it hurt.

Fact is, I--I had noticed he and his wife was--er-- well, nice and--er--folksy, as you might say, but I never once thought they did it for any reason but just because they--well, liked me, maybe.

Course I'd ought to have known better.

Fine ladies and gentlemen like them don't take much fancy to dime museum folks." There was just a trace of bitterness in his tone, the first Mrs.
Armstrong had ever noticed there.