Page:Betty Alden.djvu/21



“ him yourself, Pris.”

“No, no, Bab, I know too much for that! These men love not to be taught by a woman, although, if all were known, full many a whisper in the bedchamber comes out next day at the council board, and one grave master says to another, ‘Now look you, tell it not to the women lest they blab it!’ never mistrusting in his owlhead that a woman set the whole matter afloat.”

“Oh, Pris, you do love to jibe at the men. How did you ever persuade yourself to marry one of them?”

“Why, so that one of them might be guided into some sort of discretion. Does n’t John Alden show as a bright example to his fellows?”

"And all through his wife s training, eh, Pris?"

"Why, surely. Didst doubt such a patent fact, Mistress Standish?" "But now, Pris, in sober sadness tell me what has given you such dark suspicions of these new-comers, and how do you venture to whisper 'treason' and 'traitor' about a man who has been anointed God's messenger,