Joan nodded as the man rode off, thankful for the termination of his vicious, whirlwind visit. Utterly disgusted, she turned back to the house to find Mrs. Ransford standing in the doorway.
"What's he want?" the old woman demanded in her most uncompromising manner.
The girl laughed mirthlessly.
"I think he wants a little honesty and kindliness knocked into his very warped nature," she declared, with a sigh.
"Warped? Warped?" The old woman caught at the word, and it seemed to set her groping in search of adequate epithets in which to express her feelings. "I don't know what that means. But he's it anyways--they all are."
And she vanished again into the culinary kingdom over which she presided.