A sharp, metallic tinkle sounded at the
closet where Sara had struck the edge of her tray against a
shelf. The sound seemed to loosen the paralyzed tongues, and
everybody began talking and exclaiming at once. Clear and shrill
above the confusion rose Mrs. George Pye's voice.
"Yes, indeed, you may well say so. It IS disgraceful. And to
think how everybody trusted them! George will lose considerable
by the crash, and so will a good many folks. Everything will
have to go--Peter Baxter's farm and Lige's grand new house. Mrs.
Peter won't carry her head so high after this, I'll be bound.
George saw Lige at the Bridge, and he said he looked dreadful cut
up and ashamed."
"Who, or what's to blame for the failure?" asked Mrs. Rachel
Lynde sharply. She did not like Mrs. George Pye.
"There are a dozen different stories on the go," was the reply.
"As far as George could make out, Peter Baxter has been
speculating with other folks' money, and this is the result.
Everybody always suspected that Peter was crooked; but you'd have
thought that Lige would have kept him straight. HE had always
such a reputation for saintliness."
"I don't suppose Lige knew anything about it," said Mrs. Rachel
indignantly.
"Well, he'd ought to, then. If he isn't a knave he's a fool,"
said Mrs. Harmon Andrews, who had formerly been among his
warmest partisans. "He should have kept watch on Peter and found
out how the business was being run.
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