The blinds were cracked and torn . The pictures on the walls were crooked ; the rugs were awry ; the vases were full of faded flowers ; the dust lay in heaps -- literally in heaps . `` What are we coming to ? '' Mrs. Davis asked herself , and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth . Jerry and Carl had been whooping and sliding down the banisters as she came through the hall . They did not see her and continued whooping and sliding , and Mrs. Davis was convinced they did it on purpose . Faith 's pet rooster ambled through the hall , stood in the parlour doorway and looked at her . Not liking her looks , he did not venture in . Mrs. Davis gave a scornful sniff . A pretty manse , indeed , where roosters paraded the halls and stared people out of countenance . `` Shoo , there , '' commanded Mrs. Davis , poking her flounced , changeable-silk parasol at him . Adam shooed . He was a wise rooster and Mrs. Davis had wrung the necks of so many roosters with her own fair hands in the course of her fifty years that an air of the executioner seemed to hang around her . Adam scuttled through the hall as the minister came in . Mr. Meredith still wore slippers and dressing gown , and his dark hair still fell in uncared-for locks over his high brow . But he looked the gentleman he was ; and Mrs. Alec Davis , in her silk dress and beplumed bonnet , and kid gloves and gold chain looked the vulgar , coarse-souled woman she was . Each felt the antagonisn of the other 's personality . Mr. Meredith shrank , but Mrs. Davis girded up her loins for the fray . She had come to the manse to propose a certain thing to the minister and she meant to lose no time in proposing it . She was going to do him a favour -- a great favour -- and the sooner he was made aware of it the better .
She had been thinking about it all summer and had come XXXXX a decision at last .
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