SHE WAS MILD-MANNERED BUT CLEVER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 17, 23 April 1892, Page 433

SHE WAS MILD-MANNERED BUT CLEVER.

She was a mild-mannered little woman, and she let Mrs Jenkyns, the gossip, ramble along with her string of scandalous stories, although she did not encourage their recital by word or look. She even betrayed no surprise when Mrs Jenkyns told her that she had been informed by an intimate friend that the little woman's husband was extremely attentive to * that terrible flirt, Miss Brown.’ Nor did she display any jealousy when she was further informed that Mrs Jenkyns had accidentally learned that he had been seen at the theatre several times with Miss Brown. She simply smiled sweetly and said : • A woman doesn’t like to hear such stories about her husband, does she?’ ‘ No, indeed,’ responded Mrs Jenkyns, with emphasis. • Especially,’ continued the little woman, ‘ when she has confidence in her husband.’ ‘ That makes it so much harder to bear,’ said Mrs Jenkyns. ‘ I should take pains to have it stopped.’ • Of course, of course,’ said the little woman, pleasantly, and a moment later she changed the subject by asking in her quiet way—‘ Do you keep a calling list?’ ‘ Oh, yes; 1 have to,’ said the gossip, ‘ and it’s so hard to keep up.’ The little woman got a book out of her dainty little writing desk. ‘I have quite a system for mine,’ she said. ‘Perhaps you’d like to study it. See, there are the A’s and there the B’s.’ She turned rapidly over to the J’s. ‘When anyone calls on me I put a little dash atter the name, and when I return the call I put a cross after that. I can open it at any name and know whether I owe a call or whether a call is owed me. Now there is your name. I haven't had time to make a proper entry on it yet.’ She took up a little gold pencil that was attached to the book and drew a line clear through the name. ‘ I’m so sorry you can’t stay any longer,’ she said, with a slight bow.