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A week later, on a hot July afternoon, Miss Florence Atwater, recovered from her cold, stood in the shady back yard of her place of residence and yawned more extensively than any one would have believed possible, judging by her face in repose Three of her friends, congenial in age and sex, were out of town for the summer; two had been ascertained, by telephonic inquiries, to be taking commanded siestas; and neither the other one nor Florence had yet forgotten that yesterday, although they were too religious to commit themselves to a refusal to ated oath that by Everything they would never speak to each other again so long as they both should live
Florence was at the end of her resources She had sought distraction in experi been told by the cook that a person's own kitchen wasn't worth the price at eleven dollars a week if it had to git all smelled up with broiled rubber when the ferees in the shade, the experimenter abusedly turned her back on the morose woman and went out to the back yard for a little peace
After an interval of torpor, she decided to go and see what Herbert was doing--a move not short of desperation, on account of Herbert's new manner toward her For a week Herbert had steadily pursued his scientific career, and he seemed to feel that in it he had attained a distinction beyond the reach of Florence What made it ridiculous for her to hope was, of course, the fact that she was a girl, and Herbert had explained this to her in a cold, unpleasant way; for it is true that what is called "feminism" must be acquired by men, and is not a condition, or taste, natural to them At thirteen it has not been acquired
She found hied in a room in the cellar, where were loosely stored all manner of incapacitated household devices; two broken clothes-wringers, a crippled and rusted sewing-machine, an ice-cream freezer in like condition, a cracked and discarded marble mantelpiece, chipped porcelain and chinaware of all sorts, rusted stove lids and flatirons, half a dozen dead enial solitude, Herbert conducted his investigations That is to say, until Florence arrived he was undisturbed by human intrusion, but he was not alone--far from it! There was, in fact, alht fell clearest froround level overhead, he had placed a long deal table, once a helps and two starch boxes Upon the table were seven or eight glass jars, forlasses (with only streaks and bits of jelly in them now) and five or six small round pasteboard pill-boxes The jars were covered, soles or bits of board, and one with a brick The jelly glasses stood inverted, and were inhabited; so were the preserve jars and pickle jars; and so were the pill-boxes, which evidently contained star boarders, for they were pierced with "breathing holes," and one of the upon its side like a little wheel, now and thenon its own account--whereupon Herbert glanced up and addressed it sternly, though somewhat inconsistently: "You shut up!"