There was a moment’s pause.
“You see, I’d lost my first husband before I met Martin,” Ruthie continued thoughtfully. “My first marriage wasn’t very successful.”
She did think she was married then!
“You were divorced?” asked Jeannette. If there was a barb to the question it failed in effect.
“No; Mr. Mason was killed. He was—was rather intemperate, and there was an accident. I met Martin some time afterwards and he was wonderful to me.”
“You’ve known him long?”
“Let me see. About seven years. Joe was only a baby, and we were living in Scranton. Martin and I married about a year after my husband’s death. I was having a very hard time of it; Mr. Mason carried but very little life insurance and I took up manicuring; I had to; there was no other way for us to get along.”
She smiled at the last.
He was sorry for her, thought Jeannette; that was the way of it.
“That had been your—your profession formerly?” Jeannette asked with an innocent air.