Page:The Whisper on the Stair by Lyon Mearson (1924).djvu/187

 the stronger will. Elizabeth, did you ever look right into those green eyes of his?”

The older woman looked at her for a moment. “No,” she said at length. “Ain’t never had no reason to—but if he ever tries it on me I’ll crown him Queen of the May—with a frying pan.”

“Do you think there’s anything in mental suggestion, Elizabeth?” asked the girl, more to be saying something than because she expected a reasonable answer.

“Not so long’s I have a good grip on a flatiron—a heavy one—and power in me right arm, Miss Jessica. There never was no mental suggestion that could stand up against a good wallop behind the ear. Try it the next time he gets around you with them there green eyes. You’ll see. Miss Jessica⸺”

Jessica laughed, her good humor restored. “That’s no way to be talking about my future husband, Elizabeth.”

The other looked up in astonishment. “Surely, Miss Jessica, you’re not thinking of marrying with that devil, are you, I want to tell you right now that I give notice, if you are. No money on earth could make me work in the same house with him. But you’re only joking, aren’t you, Miss Jessica? You would never⸺”

“I don’t know, Elizabeth,” replied Jessica slowly. “Sometimes I think I’ll just have to—you know, I sort of feel myself going going  going  and then I wake up suddenly and I see that I never could do it. But one of these days. ”

“I wonder what Mr. Morley is doing to-day,” wondered Elizabeth, rather irrelevantly, it seemed to Jessica.