Before he could protest further, she had shaken hands, gathered up trowel and kneeling-pad, given them into Dinah's keeping, unpinned and shaken down the skirt of her black gown, and was gone—gone up the twilit path, her handmaiden following,—gone with a fleeting smile that, while ignoring Fancy Tabb, left Captain Cai strangely perturbed, so nicely it struck a balance between understanding and aloofness.
He rubbed his chin, then his ear, then the back of his neck.
"Lord!" he groaned suddenly, "where was my manners?"
"Eh?"
"I never said a word about her affliction."
"What might that be, in your opinion?"
"Her first husband, o' course—or, as I should say, the loss of him. Shockin' thing to forget. . . . I've almost a mind now to follow her an' make my excuses."
"Do," said Fancy; "I'd like to hear you start 'pon 'em."
"Well, you can if you will. Come over with me to Rilla to-morrow forenoon. I'll get leave for you."
"That'd spoil the fun," said Fancy, not one risible muscle twitching; "but go you'll have to. Mrs Bosenna has left one of her cuffs behind."