Miss Baker had turned back the overskirt of her dress; a plate of cake was in her lap; from time to time she sipped her wine with the delicacy of a white cat.
The two women were much interested in each other.

Miss Baker told Mrs.
Sieppe all about Old Grannis, not forgetting the fiction of the title and the unjust stepfather.
"He's quite a personage really," said Miss Baker.
Mrs.Sieppe led the conversation around to her children.

"Ach, Trina is sudge a goote girl," she said; "always gay, yes, und sing from morgen to night.

Und Owgooste, he is soh smart also, yes, eh?
He has der genius for machines, always making somethun mit wheels und sbrings." "Ah, if--if--I had children," murmured the little old maid a trifle wistfully, "one would have been a sailor; he would have begun as a midshipman on my brother's ship; in time he would have been an officer.
The other would have been a landscape gardener." "Oh, Mac!" exclaimed Trina, looking up into the dentist's face, "think of all this money coming to us just at this very moment.

Isn't it wonderful?
Don't it kind of scare you ?" "Wonderful, wonderful!" muttered McTeague, shaking his head.