"What I do care about," she went on briskly, "is
that I won't have this girl pestered by Jackson or by you or by any
man that wears hair! Why, Jackson talks so silly about her sometimes
you'd think she was a bad woman--and he keeps hinting about something
he's going to put over till I can hardly keep my hands off him. I just
know some day he'll make me forget I'm a lady. Now, take it from me,
Bill, if you're setting in with him, don't start anything you can't
finish."
Really she was quite fierce about it. I mean to say, the glitter in
her eyes made me recall what Cousin Egbert had said of Mrs. Effie, her
being quite entirely willing to take on a rattlesnake and give it the
advantage of the first two assaults. Somewhat flustered I was, yet I
hastened to assure her that, whatever steps I might feel obliged to
take for the protection of the Honourable George, they would involve
nothing at all unfair to the lady in question.
"Well, they better hadn't!" she resumed threateningly. "That girl had
a hard time all right, but listen here--she's as right as a church.
She couldn't fool me a minute if she wasn't. Don't you suppose I been
around and around quite some? Just because she likes to have a good
time and outdresses these dames here--is that any reason they should
get out their hammers? Ain't she earned some right to a good time,
tell me, after being married when she was a silly kid to Two-spot
Kenner, the swine--and God bless the trigger finger of the man that
bumped him off! As for the poor old Judge, don't worry.
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