Strikes me you are
just spoiling the whole lot, father thrown in, Annie.
You are a dear, just as they say, but you are too
much of a dear to be good for them."
Annie stared.
"You are letting that omelet burn," said Benny.
"Say, Annie, I will go out and turn that hay in
the morning. I know I don't amount to much, but
I ain't a girl, anyhow, and I haven't got a cross-eyed
soul. That's what ails a lot of girls. They mean all
right, but their souls have been cross-eyed ever
since they came into the world, and it's just such
girls as you who ought to get them straightened
out. You know what has happened to-day. Well,
here's what happened yesterday. I don't tell tales,
but you ought to know this, for I believe Tom Reed
has his eye on you, in spite of Imogen's being such
a beauty, and Susan's having manners like silk,
and Eliza's giving everybody the impression that
she is too good for this earth, and Jane's trying to
make everybody think she is a sweet martyr, with-
out a thought for mortal man, when that is only
her way of trying to catch one. You know Tom
Reed was here last evening?"
Annie nodded. Her face turned scarlet, then
pathetically pale. She bent over her omelet, care-
fully lifting it around the edges.
"Well," Benny went on, "I know he came to see
you, and Imogen went to the door and ushered him
into the parlor, and I was out on the piazza, and
she didn't know it, but I heard her tell him that she
thought you had gone out.
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