He died of a paralytic stroke quite early in life . '' `` Did you see anybody at the store ? '' asked Rilla desperately , in the faint hope of directing Susan 's conversation into more agreeable channels . `` Nobody except Mary Vance , '' said Susan , `` and she was stepping round as brisk as the Irishman 's flea . '' What terrible similes Susan used ! Would Kenneth think she acquired them from the family ! `` To hear Mary talk about Miller Douglas you would think he was the only Glen boy who had enlisted , '' Susan went on . `` But of course she always did brag and she has some good qualities I am willing to admit , though I did not think so that time she chased Rilla here through the village with a dried codfish till the poor child fell , heels over head , into the puddle before Carter Flagg 's store . '' Rilla went cold all over with wrath and shame . Were there any more disgraceful scenes in her past that Susan could rake up ? As for Ken , he could have howled over Susan 's speeches , but he would not so insult the duenna of his lady , so he sat with a preternaturally solemn face which seemed to poor Rilla a haughty and offended one . `` I paid eleven cents for a bottle of ink tonight , '' complained Susan . `` Ink is twice as high as it was last year . Perhaps it is because Woodrow Wilson has been writing so many notes . It must cost him considerable . My cousin Sophia says Woodrow Wilson is not the man she expected him to be -- but then no man ever was . Being an old maid , I do not know much about men and have never pretended to , but my cousin Sophia is very hard on them , although she married two of them , which you might think was a fair share . Albert Crawford 's chimney blew down in that big gale we had last week , and when Sophia heard the bricks clattering on the roof she thought it was a Zeppelin raid and went into hysterics . And Mrs. Albert Crawford says that of the two things she would have preferred the Zeppelin raid . '' Rilla sat limply in her chair like one hypnotized .
She knew Susan would stop talking when she was ready to stop and XXXXX no earthly power could make her stop any sooner .
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