"I never have much company, and don't want any just now; as for explaining what——"
"Is nobody's business; why, it's just what you dislike, and the thought of it has, by your own account, driven the young creature half beside herself. Just let the thing alone, Mrs. Allen; where there is no one to talk with, there is nothing to tell."
"I will neither seek my neighbors, nor withhold the truth if they demand it of me," said the widow.
The doctor gathered up his crutches, with a show of impatience, and muttered something not over complimentary to the sea, and all that followed it.
His voice aroused the patient in the next room, who called out:
"Who is there, mother? Has he come?"
The doctor stumped across the room, and stood balanced on his crutches looking at her.
"Oh, is it you, doctor?" she said, in a voice that plainly spoke the disappointment that she felt.
"Well, it seems impossible to mistake myself for anybody else, or I should deny being fool enough to come this road twice."
"But you are here. It is very, very kind. You don't know how much I feel it; besides, I want to say something."