Rudolph told his story in great detail, with
occasional promptings from his mother or father.

Wick Cutter and his wife had gone on liv-
ing in the house that Antonia and I knew so
well, and in the way we knew so well. They
grew to be very old people. He shriveled up,
Antonia said, until he looked like a little old
yellow monkey, for his beard and his fringe
of hair never changed color. Mrs. Cutter
remained flushed and wild-eyed as we had
known her, but as the years passed she became
afflicted with a shaking palsy which made her
nervous nod continuous instead of occasional.
Her hands were so uncertain that she could
no longer disfigure china, poor woman! As
the couple grew older, they quarreled more and
more about the ultimate disposition of their
"property." A new law was passed in the
State, securing the surviving wife a third of
her husband's estate under all conditions.
Cutter was tormented by the fear that Mrs.
Cutter would live longer than he, and that
eventually her "people," whom he had always
hated so violently, would inherit. Their quar-
rels on this subject passed the boundary of the
close-growing cedars, and were heard in the
street by whoever wished to loiter and listen.

[[407]]

p406 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p407w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p408

v?