"Her mind giving way!" echoed Mrs. Upjohn, surprised out of her usual caution. "Oh, I guess not. Who told you that, Letty?"
"Yes, indeed," said Miss Lambkin with a toss of her head. "Didn't you know that she's been sent out to Doctor Sanderson's Home for Incurables? Dick sent her out there nearly a month ago. She's as comfortable there as could be expected. I have it on the best of authority--some one connected with the institution," she added with a nod and a knowing look.
Mrs. Upjohn laughed again. "I can't believe it, Letty. You must have been misinformed. In the first place, Doctor Sanderson's place isn't a home for incurables."
"I know he doesn't call it that. To tell the truth, I can't find out just what he does call it."
"Can't your best of authority tell you that, too?" asked Mrs. Upjohn slyly.
"Now, Alicia," said Miss Lambkin with asperity, "you needn't go to calling in question my authority. It was one of the nurses, if you must know."
"Doctor Sanderson wouldn't thank her for talking so freely," remarked Mrs. Upjohn. "I should really like to know what he would say about Patty. I understood that she had simply gone there to board."
"I suppose she can call it that, but I don't believe that Doctor Sanderson is running a boarding-house or a hotel either. I always thought that she was bound for the asylum. And, another thing, I had it from the same authority that Meriwether Beatty goes to see her regularly once or twice a week, and he's real kind, too. I leave it to you whether that isn't a sign that he thinks her mind is growing feeble. He always used to say the most brutal things."
"I should say it was rather a sign that Doctor Beatty was losing his mind than that Patty was losing hers," rejoined Mrs. Upjohn.
"Well," said Letty with an air of finality, "you just wait and see if I'm not right."
Miss Lambkin glanced at her smiling face and thought it best to change the subject.
"Dick Torrington," she observed, "is going to be married to that Henrietta girl. But I suppose you know."
"I understood," Miss Lambkin resumed, "that the wedding was to be the last of June."
"Oh," rejoined Miss Lambkin, somewhat taken aback by Mrs. Upjohn's ready replies. "And I understood that Henrietta was coming on here to visit right away."