“You must surprise people who don’t know you when you praise your colonel,” said Mrs. Belton, who had a pleasing, though sometimes disconcerting habit of saying nice things about people she liked to their faces, which, she said, would appreciate it much more than their backs would, “because it is so ridiculous to think of you as a colonel’s mother.”
“Oh, do you think so!” said Mrs. Updike flushing. “Ought I to look more dignified? I am always in such a hurry with the house and the cooking that I can’t remember to be my age.”
“I don’t mean that,” said Mrs. Belton hastily. “I mean you look so ridiculously and charmingly young. You really do.”
Both the Updikes looked pleased and Mr. Updike, glancing at his wife with an agreeable mixture of pride and protection, said he was glad to hear tha
