He took the road leading upwards towards the country. "Well, Nellie?" he asked presently.
"Yes, dear Walter," she answered, faltering.
"Have you had a nice time, dear, while I have been away?"
"Pretty well, Walter; and now I do not know how to tell you something that will grieve you."
"What is it, Nellie? It will be no better for waiting. What has happened, dear?"
Nellie still hesitated; then she said slowly, "I do not think Christina will ever marry."
"Why?" asked Walter; "What makes you say so?"
His tone was light and easy, and suited ill with Nellie's highly-wrought feelings.
"Because she was to have been married once, and he died," she answered very low.
Walter did not answer. There was a long silence, broken only by the tread of their feet on the rough road, and by the beating of Nellie's heart, which to her sounded above everything else.