I rene Potter struggled with her harried nerves until finally a good and necessary calm came over her. This was her great opportunity, and she must not, must not, must not mess it up.

She began quite coolly to reason this out, to be sure she was right in her plan of action.

Margot was dead, dead and buried, any quarrel between them gone, forgotten.

Excelsior had had a needlework shop for a very long time, and it was not right to discontinue that tradition.

Betsy Devonshire might be Margot’s sister, but she didn’t even know how to knit, and Shelly had said she didn’t know anything at all about running a needlework shop.

Whereas Irene Potter knew everything about needlework, and almost everything about running a small business.

And she had over sixty thousand dollars in savings.

Therefore it was right, good, and proper that Irene should take over that shop.

Sixty thousand wasn’t really enough, of course. Though if Ms. Devonshire was as ignorant as she seemed to be, it might do. If not, then it would serve as a down payment.

With her energy and knowledge, Irene knew she could make a much bigger success of a needlework shop than Margot. After all, Margot hadn’t needed to make a living out of it, as Irene did. So it was clear that she, Irene Potter, should take over the needlework shop.

And when she did, then everyone would see that she was good at this! She’d show those people who said she wasn’t any good with people! When they had to come to her, then they’d see; the shop would be wonderful, better than before, and everyone would love her for ensuring that the tradition continued.

That thought set off an almost painful excitement, and she had to stop and take several calming breaths. That made her smile. Jill was always saying that: take a breath. Amusement calmed her nerves to steadiness.

Then she got into her raincoat, took up her umbrella, made sure her savings book was in her purse, and left her room. Outside, on the sidewalk, she raised herself onto her toes, pivoted in the direction of the lake, and began walking.

Jill’s sharp questioning had brought Betsy to her senses, but she still had felt restless, needing to do something. So she went down to the shop and found the list of employees and their phone numbers, brought it up, and started calling. Before long she found two more of them available to help with inventory tomorrow during the day. Also, Shelly could come after twelve, and another would come by after five to help Shelly take up where the day workers left off.