The supper was waiting, as the Squire had predicted; but he took no chances on sitting at table at once and having her keen woman’s eyes survey Vaniman’s somber face; he feared that her solicitude would open up a dangerous topic.

“Leave your biscuits in for a few minutes, Mother,” the Squire urged.  “Let’s have some literature for an appetizer.”

So he sat down and read the brotherly tribute in the new issue of The Hornet, and Xoa’s eyes glistened behind her spectacles, though she decorously deplored the heat of the sting dealt by Usial.  Frank, watching her efforts to hide mirth and display womanly concern at this distressing affair between brothers, forgot some of his own troubles in his amusement.  Therefore the Squire’s tactics were successful, and the talk at the supper table over the hot biscuits and the cold chicken and the damson preserves was concerned merely with the characters of the brothers Britt.  Squire Hexter did mention, casually, that Frank had succeeded in inducing Tasper to stop whipping Usial.  Xoa reached and patted the young man’s arm and blessed him with her eyes.

Frank, as usual, helped Xoa to clear away the supper things.  Early in his stay he had been obliged to beg for permission to do it, and she had consented at last when he pleaded that it made him feel less like a boarder in the Hexter home.

While she finished her work in the kitchen Vaniman sat with the Squire in front of the fireplace and smoked his pipe, but not with his customary comfort; the tobacco seemed to be as bitter as his ponderings; he was trying to stiffen his resolution to go away from Egypt.

Squire Hexter chatted.  It was hard to keep off the Britt affair, but the notary tactfully kept away from the sore center of it.

“It has been going on a long time—­the trouble between ’em, son.  For two men who look alike outside, they’re about as different inside as any two I’ve ever known.  Tasper has been all for grab!  He grabbed away Usial’s share of the home place and then he grabbed Mehitable Dole while she was keeping company with Usial.  I suppose Hittie reckoned there was no choice in outside looks, but saw considerable inducement in the home place.  Plenty of other women for Usial!  Yes!  But I can’t help thinking that I might be keeping bach hall in my law office if I hadn’t got hold of Xoa in my young days.  So there’s Usial!  Right in his rut because he’s the kind that stays in a rut.  Pegs shoes days and reads books nights.  No telling how the legislature may develop him.  Glad he’s going.”

The Squire rapped out his pipe ashes against an andiron.  His posture gave him an opportunity to say what he said next without meeting Vaniman’s gaze.  “Vona Harnden was a mighty smart girl when she was teaching school.  I was superintendent and had a chance to know.  Does she take hold well in the bank?”

Vaniman had hard work to make his affirmative sound casual.