"Of course, I must admit I did
rather forget myself. It was at the last meeting of the Progressive
Euchre Club and everybody was criticizing you for having solid gold
prizes when they were at your house. They said it was vulgar
ostentation. I didn't say anything for the longest time, but finally
when they all said your money had gone to your head, hadn't it, I admit
I did mumble, 'It seems so.' But it is only what everybody else says
all the time, and I assure you I didn't really mean it. Of course
nobody can behave just the same after they are a millionaire as they
did before. But I am awfully fond of you and--and--"
"It was most disloyal," said Mrs. Budlong. "And to think that after
tearing me to pieces behind my back, you could come and call on me."
It was a fine speech, but after she heard herself say it, Mrs. Budlong
had a sinking feeling that if she herself had never called on anybody
she had not criticized she would have stayed at home all her life. But
Johnetta Ackerley took another line. She threw herself on Mrs.
Budlong's mercy, and if Mrs. Budlong boasted of anything more than
another it was her mercy.
"I have just been at the church," said Johnetta, "helping to decorate
it for Christmas week, and I was hanging up a big motto 'Peace on
Earth, Good Will to Men' and I think it ought to apply to women, too.
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